I think the auto-renew is probably the better value, but it's always an issue attracting new fans & getting them to fork out for & commit to a full season (especially if it's a family outing). Even without all other prices going through the roof.
One gripe I have, however, is that the wheelchair team's fixtures aren't included in the ST when all the other flavours are. I appreciate it's a different venue with additional costs, but shirly at least some concession could have been made (and there's parking to take into account too)?

Sorry could you clarify this? What do you mean by swapping tickets?

If you couldn't make a game, you could swap your tickets to a different game later in the season. We used to do it regularly. Meant that we could bring friends/family to the game we could make. You can't do it now. No big deal, but it was a factor in us deciding top get season tix from a price per game point of view

So my understanding is that if you cant make it to a game (holiday,illness,cant be d etc) you could give the ticket to anyone later on to get in free but you could also use your ticket aswell,that doesnt make commercial sense as it isnt the clubs fault that you are missing a game but the club gets stung for £28 upwards.

Commercial risk that probably didn't work so is no longer available.

We now have memberships where people can pick and choose.

Your understanding is wrong. You couldn't let someone else use your ticket. It was cancelled for the game you couldn't make and you got extra tickets for a different game. It's no big deal. I just thought you could still do it. The person I spoke to at the ticket office said they stopped it last year. It must have been a real sphere ache to manage so it's understandable that they've stopped it. It just tips the value of getting a season ticket over the edge for us and it will be a membership net season