Under that perspective I'm perhaps guilty of mentioning lichess unnecessarily, but I do think the site is an interesting phenomenon (i.e. providing cutting-edge technology, at no cost to users, without advertising or tracking).

Raising awareness of alternatives is good, but yep I think it's also fair to be critical of the way that awareness is generated.

I think it’s entirely warranted, given that lichess does not have the budget to sponsor big name chess streamers. The only thing that keeps lichess going is the user base.

I have a chess.com account and wouldn’t have heard about lichess if not for this post.

I think it's an interesting phenomenon and worth spreading some info about, both because of the technical aspects and the philosophy of the creator I prefer.

I do the same in person with friends, and if they ignore me, or try it and prefer chess.com then not too much harm done:).

It’s because lichess is pretty significantly better than chess.com while being free. Creates that extra motivation to make that post.