I found Reddit so useful that I would have paid but only for the user experience I wanted. not the stream of vomit their app wanted to show me. Im almost 40, I've got a pretty good job I can cover another subscription. I wouldnt have liked it, but I could have.
This is what pisses me off about tech companies. Tell me "for $20 a month you get the fully customisable app with no tracking for advertising or data mining or use the free add supported, try and sell you shit app" give me the option, I will pay to not be annoyed.
Exactly this. I wasn't paying for using third party apps because I hated reddit as a website. I payed because it offered me the user experience I desired. Customization, ad-free, privacy-focus, etc. If they offered that with a paid solution to an official "pro/premium" app, I would have been interested in buying a yearly subscription. But no, the baseline experience on the official app is the same for everyone. Zero customization, doesn't even support the core moderation functions that the site's mods and maintainers need to do what they do (for free).