Facebook—the product is possibly better than the other social networks at doing the basics.

Facebook—the company, is morally bankrupt. Arguably the worst of the bunch. The overly invasive data-collection, sharing of data in questionable ways, repeated lying about.. just about everything... etc.

For me, the product is not appealing enough to compensate for the failings of the companies. If it weren't for the fact that so many friends/ businesses/ family rely on it for communications I would quit it entirely.

"free" isn't really the word we should be using at this point to describe facebook. You're mostly paying with the private intimate details of your personal life and by consenting to be manipulated but you're still paying.

That is part of the false narrative promoted by the anti-ads crowd. If you understand the history of the internet, then you can only disagree strongly with that kind of thinking. It is basically just sawing off the branch we are all sitting on.

The user does not become a product because Facebook run ads, and they are also not entitled to part of the profit. It would be minuscule anyway.

No, actually, there is no real product, except the reach and engagement Facebook is able to create through the ads.

> The user does not become a product because Facebook run ads

they become a product because Facebook collects their personal information and uses it to manipulate them for profit. Facebook could show ads without mining user data, without buying information from data brokers, and without creating shadow profiles for people who choose not to interact with their service. They do all of those things though because the user is 100% the product as far as Facebook is concerned.