I'm pretty sure this isn't the reason. The CEO of VW continues to praise Elon Musk as a role model for the change in his company. I assume it's more about evaluating if Twitter Ads are still worth their money, feeling social pressure to distance themselves and hey, they just got free positive press coverage!

How did you get this? I paid for it years ago but I have never heard of a discount?

If you had purchased Pocket Casts ($2.99USD?) and Pocket Casts Plus ($9.00USD) before the freemium model was introduced, you were eventually given "Lifetime Member" status and are not required to pay a recurring fee to use Pocket Casts Plus.

History of the kerfuffle here:

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/19/20873611/pocket-casts-plu...