adobe wants a fee for cancelling my subscription early

The annual paid monthly plan works like that. Cancel more than 14 days in and they charge a chunk of what's left on the year. There's no fee if you cancel around your renewal date, so look up when your plan year started. If you only use Photoshop, switch to the Photography plan instead of cancelling. It covers Photoshop and Lightroom for a lot less. Also start the cancel process anyway. They often offer a discount or free months before the final step, and you can back out.