[beerpls]

I don’t understand the mentality that API ought to be open and free

If you’re building something on someone else’s property, are you not prepared for the reality they may say you no longer get access to the property?

By all means if we want to treat social media as some public utility let’s do it, but as it is this line of reasoning makes no sense to me

[timf]

I don't have that mentality that this must be the case, for what it's worth. It's just what is most attractive to the end-users usually. And it's what many products do to attract them.