Not really sure what you are talking about, I know they do offer a phone subscription, right now they are only available in Europe and are soon going to be available in the United States. When I checked their website it brought me to this page:
Where you can purchase the phone outright for 579 euros, no mention of the phone subscription plan. Fairphone aren’t perfect but I do think they are doing a good job regarding right to repair and offering extended security updates.
I have heard that in some places in Europe it’s hard to find Google Pixels so this could be a decent alternative in the future for those people that want to use a custom rom.
Cons
My main concern being security issues, they don’t seem to be as secure as Pixel devices: