Just because they've changed the name, it doesn't change how the software works. Pay your subscription, download the DMG/ZIP files, burn them onto a disk or flash drive if you feel the need, install and away you go. The software is still installed locally on your machine and there's no need to work 'in the cloud' if you don't want to.
My personal opinion is that this is less of a keeping up with the times strategy and more of a move to kerb piracy whilst maintaining a constant revenue stream. With the old method of buying the software outright, if you regularly use indesign, illustrator, photoshop and Acrobat Pro, you'd buy the CS design standard at a substantial cost. Then if you also occasionally need flash you'd have to buy that separately at another substantial cost. Not many people have £2-3k sat around to invest in software in one go so in this situation might be tempted to look for a pirate alternative. Now, you can pay a monthly subscription for your regular packages and add on things like flash for a nominal cost. PLUS you have access to a huge online database of plugins, tutorials and updates for free.... Oh and you get the latest versions of the software as and when they're released.
