[asteroidp]

Why does everything have to be monetized? You know people used to do hobby stuff for free right?

[molf]

OP did not say this was a hobby project. They might be trying to start a business. I think we should read "personal" as "not belonging to their employer".

[kioleanu]

I am selling physical products that cost (quite a lot of) money to create and send. I need to sell them otherwise, I can't sustain the project

[jdrc]

because people who are providing value to others want to have a way to extract value as well. It's the reason why money was invented

More generally, it's better to have the option and not use it than not have the option at all.