[InitialBP]

I'm fully in agreement with all of your downsides (although ads aren't necessarily a dealbreaker for me).

The pain point for me is that my family/friends circle isn't willing to try and use new software especially stuff that might be custom or have some lack of features.

It took me a year or more to get my dad to send me pictures and videos over FB Messenger instead of SMS (he has an iphone and I have an android). Maybe I just need some new persuasion tactics but the idea of putting energy and time into building a custom app for my family and then dealing with pushback and a reluctance to use it just sounds exhausting to me.