I sent a letter to Jochen Zeitz, Harley CEO, regarding how upset I was that HD-Connect has been discontinued. I didn't receive a letter in response. Instead I received a call from the Heaven Hotline aka Harley Customer Support and I vented for about 5 minutes. My main emphasis to both Jochen and the support rep who phoned, was that Harley can no longer be trusted. Case in point: HD-Connect - introduce and promote the feature on the 2020 high end touring models and then de-commit before the model year has ended.
If HD-Connect subscriber rates were low, I suspect it was because of poor marketing and lack of dealer and customer education.
HD-Connect overhead costs to Harley have to be per-subscriber - the subscriber signs up and Harley enables the cell phone and incurs overhead. If Harley was foolish enough to guarantee a high number of subscribers without experience, they should eat that expense, market the hell out of it and raise the subscription price if needed.
Did this affect me personally? No, because I passed on the purchase of a new 2020 bike after I learned about this fiasco. I'll keep my 2016 CVO Streetglide forever.