I understand not wanting to rely on a subscription product, however, if you are concerned about such things, I suggest that you simply organize your files into the file structure you desire within Lightroom. You can use the DNG file format so that changes are contained within the file.
Photo Mechanic and Affinity Photo are both able to read the DNG and as far as I can tell, along with many other programs, and even the Windows 10 file manager will show the changes. I just tried it and I see the changes when I view the thumbnails of the DNG files.
You can simply move the files around inside Lightroom to the file structure on your hard drive that you desire.
So, for example, you realize you want to group all of your photos of Eagles together, regardless of date or camera, or whatever, simply search your keywords for “eagle” and drag/drop them to your Eagles folder, which is likely under the Wildlife folder within the animal folder on your drive.
It might be easiest to import into Lightroom by date, and then within each folder, start moving files around as required.
#1 – Lightroom reads lots of file formats and videos (in Library Mode)
#2 – Lightroom lets you zoom in and out. You can move one at a time or many.
#3 – Sorting is easy, moving is required if you don’t trust the library.
Just remember something. If you stop paying for Lightroom, the Library file organization features remain intact, just the Develop module and such are disabled.