I read an opinion piece in Medium that lamented the domination of technology tools and services by fewer and fewer companies. Too many get sucked in by the free or ad-supported services which many companies share and subsidize by other income streams, e.g., Apple, Google, Microsoft. Smaller companies do not have these secondary revenue streams and must sell their tools or services or try to get by in other ways.
The Medium article was written by the CEO of Obsidian which created and continues to improve the note-taking system I use. I use the personal version of Obsidian which is free and I do not need the shared version which the company sells to groups needing such a product. The company has come out with an Early Access program allowing individuals like me to pay $25 for a few additional services I also would probably never use, but I did purchase as a way to support the company.
I find myself making these small contributions more and more simply because I can and I recognize that many companies are struggling. Another example of this for me is the This Week in Tech Club. TWIT offers several podcasts I listen to religiously. The podcast network does embed ads but again is struggling financially as ad revenue for free-standing podcasts has declined. My interests are unique and I want to see the smaller companies serving niche markets survive.
The reality is that there is no such thing as free and there is a legitimate concern that the big actors will squeeze out the little guys. Think of this as a small business issue.