Thinking on this a bit more.
Rock music isn't "dead" in 2025 but it's way different than it was 20+ years ago. It's a lot less guitar hero and a lot more indie rock. Lots of jangly guitars that are more textured than riffing. Way more women in bands than there used to be. And Fender guitars are overwhelmingly the instruments of choice.
I read an article about a bunch of teenagers starting bands in Chicago a few years ago, and there was a chunk of the article where younger teens were highly impressed by older teens that had real Fender instruments which made them professional in their eyes. They saw Fenders as the gold standard, so that brand building really does make an impact.
Teenagers don't use computers. They didn't grow up with them and don't have much use for them outside school. They do live on their phones and tablets though. Offering a free DAW that integrates to some lower price hardware from a highly trusted brand would be huge for kids. I could see that ultimately leading to a subscription platform that offers things like loops and libraries and what not.
If you're 15 years old, you're not going to save up $1-2k to get a computer, audio interface, hardware modeler, and DAW. You probably already have a phone and headphones, so a free DAW plus a < $100 guitar input to your phone is way more achievable. And you don't care how accurate the modeling is because you've never even seen a tube amp in real life.
TL/DR - Fender's free DAW isn't aimed at anyone who posts on a gear forum or has a computer set up for recording already. It's for kids who are just getting into music and maybe just got their first guitar.
