That is a valid point. At this point, I think most of the free stuff is depending on the DHF and I know there is a lot of disagreement towards how that is distributed. I don't think having some paid features that are blocked off isn't so bad.
If I can get added value for things that I really need, I wouldn't mind paying for it. At the moment, the need of the user is not the first priority of the front-ends so they develop rather what they think is important and it would be good to have a way to incentivise things that people really want. If I build something that people need and I get paid for it, I will try to build more things that people need...