I'm a "cyclist" who absolutely loves Strava and I couldn't care any less about segments or leaderboards or beating my friends on their favorite hill. I just like to track my bike rides. I know there's a core group of hardcore cyclists who use the app like you do, but I wonder if there isn't a much wider group of people who think it's cool to track their rides and that's it.

But there's plenty of alternatives if all you want is to track your bike rides. Training Peaks, Endomondo, Garmin connect, Polar Flow, Runkeeper, Apple Health, Google Fit, RideWithGPS. There's probably a lot more I've forgotten. Strava is giving up on one of their best unique features and will be pretty much the same as everyone else in a crowded segment.

There's so much more they could do to improve the service instead, but then they haven't shown any interest in development for years. I guess this is the easiest way for a desperate management to try to squeeze some more money from the users fast. It's not a good sign for Strava users, even if they don't use the features.

I actually just ride to beat segments and get in the top 3 at least. This will take out a huge part of enjoying cycling outdoors for me.

But nothing has significantly changed for you if you can consistently reach top 3 (top 10 actually)

The biggest loss for me (if I wasn't subscribing) would be the "friends" leaderboard. I'm actually not that much interested in the obvious peer ranking on my home climbs (I already know how strong each of my cycling buddies are), but it's also a bit of a connoisseur feature when traveling (e.g. when it's not 2020): a famous col will have dozens of friends on it and none of them are even close to top 1000. The stories (when, why) are often more interesting than the times, even more so if it's not a famous col by a hidden gem, which then becomes a bit of an asynchronously shared experience.

you could just become a paying customer and then you don't have to lose all that enjoyment of cycling outdoors

To me segments and leaderboards are largely what have made Strava stand out. Take those away and I might not have much reason to prefer Strava to Garmin Connect or any number of similar apps.

You and others here are responding to this by noting that segments and leaderboards are their one defining, irreplaceable feature, which seems like a pretty strong case for charging for it :)

The concern is that the pool of users on the leaderboard will shrink so much that it will end up becoming meaningless for those paid users who stuck around.

Same. I used Strava for many years but switched to TrainingPeaks. It has a very web 1.0 feel, which leads me to believe they're actually profitable ;)

Given what you just said, isn't it logical that Strava would want to monetize that?

You lose the whole network/community effect. I'm not going to pay $60 a year to stick it to my mate who can't stick it back to me when he beats my record. It's their one feature that sets them apart from the rest and they just killed it.

This is the same thought I'm having. I've been using Strava for ~8 years now, and as a MTBer the leaderboards have always been a lot of fun. I would happily pay for the subscription to keep access to the leaderboards, but I'm afraid they'll become a shell of what they were - and that I'll mostly be competing against myself on segments!