[dhosek]

You're assuming it's either/or. When I worked at eHarmony we had a monitor that would scroll user feedback submitted online near the developer area. One of the most common complaints was about ads being shown to paid users.

I asked a PM about this and was told that the money they made was too much to turn down.

Capitalism. It's why we can't have nice things.

[Nextgrid]

I don't disagree with that, but that's still not a reason to turn down paid options. With ads, you are guaranteed to get a bad experience. With paid product, there is potential for a bad experience, but at least it's not the guaranteed default.

Regulation around ads is the only definitive solution, but in the meantime if there's a business model that's non-toxic I'm not going to hate on it even if technically someone could still misuse it.