Nothing wrong with making a living, but I don't visit Twitter every day to see streams of advertisements any more than I watch YouTube so I can see the ads. I don't mind seeing occasional ads or asks or self-promotion, but when the self-promotion drowns out the useful content I unfollow.

> if you don't pay them to produce the stuff you like, either they will stop doing it, or turn to shady crap like whatever this BitClout thing is, NFTs, or just spyware advertising.

What a cynical take. "Pay me or I'll advertise spyware!" It doesn't work like that. I use Twitter as a social network to communicate with people, not to be pitched products I don't want.

I'm not asking for free stuff, I just want a decent signal to noise ratio and some honest conversations.

It's the individual's choice to turn their personal Twitter (or email list or blog) into a billboard. Similarly it is the user's choice to unfollow said individual if they dislike billboards.

I myself have had to do this for numerous art accounts as sometime in 2021 they all started shilling NFTs.

Who said it wasn’t an individual choice? Many things you’re perfectly within your rights to do have negative or perverse consequences.

For nearly all artists, their “personal” Twitter was always a billboard. If you have been enjoying people’s art, but never given them any money for it, it’s hardly surprising they turn to some strategy that might make them money, is it?

If you have been financially supporting artists you like in some other way, this doesn’t apply.