I feel the same way about simulations. People are mad that Fusion 360 started turning the screws on hobbyists. It is ridiculously expensive for noodling around with your 3D printer once a month. I paid rather than learning some other piece of software, and whether or not simulation is free is not something that particularly bothers me. I'm always considering jumping to something else in the back of my mind; OpenSCAD is most appealing to me, but I like the 2D sketch + extrude model.
(All the cool kids are using Onshape now, but I just can't get excited about a browser app. So I keep using Fusion 360, and honestly, I still like it, even if Autodesk is not a shining paragon of software and social excellence.)
As a hobbyist, you still don't have to pay for fusion 360. There are a few annoyances like only having 10 active files at a time, but otherwise, most features are still there for free users.
It's not quite the same niche and it costs $1K, but Rhino might do what you want, you will own it, it has a great user community and is very responsive to its users. For making things to 3D print it should be great.
(All the cool kids are using Onshape now, but I just can't get excited about a browser app. So I keep using Fusion 360, and honestly, I still like it, even if Autodesk is not a shining paragon of software and social excellence.)