If you never paid, well that’s because you entered the scene after Microsoft’s commoditising effect of the browser market had taken effect. You now had a choice.

You've got your history wrong. Free browsers were always available. Mosaic first, Netscape and then Firefox, with plenty of other lower market share offerings. Microsoft didn't commoditize anything.

Netscape was basically shareware - it cost money, but hardly anyone paid for it.

Since shareware is kind of an alien concept these days, many people remember Netscape as "always free" but it was not really.

Many users would have obtained Navigator from ISP and magazine cover disks etc. So those copies would have been paid for as part of the price of the magazine or connection.