I can corroborate this. My family was involved in a chemical manufacturing business in India from the 60s onwards. My understanding from what my family tells me is that the 80s and early 90s is when a lot of these base manufacturing inputs became readily available.
I also paid for ST3, but I switched to ST4 for the hardware accelerated rendering. I don't like their licensing policy anymore, so I just dismiss the purchase signs. I want to get my company to pay for it because paying 100 USD _again_ is just absurd for me.
I have no plans to switch off though. This is still a heck of a lot faster than the alternatives