I found Reddit Gold and Discord Nitro's gifting systems to be smart ways of monetization.
There are people who, despite what you try, cannot or will not pay you. Gifting allows you to keep the people that positively contribute on your platform while still earning money from elsewhere.
Amazing how swiftly they're progressing with their enshittification. Makes me re-think all those 9 years spent there.
Meh, AFAIK they're all genuine updates. I mean, you can read the patch notes to see for yourself. They're actually really amusing patch notes always full of jokes. I can't fault em for wanting to regularly push their subscription considering that you get so much for free. Software development is expensive.
I agree, the "award" systems, are one of the least offensive monetization strategies I've seen.
Keep in mind that awards don't have to behave like Reddit and Discord have implement them. I'm sure there's room to innovate in a community focused manner.
Reddit however, has decided that they need to crush everything and go full Silicon Valley vampire in order to squeeze a lifetime of upper class earnings into a get rich quick payout scheme.