I think it's an issue with some tools being "good enough" (majority of the free ones) + the feeling where you paid for something and it feels meh (or maybe it asks for paid upgrades, etc)

I tried Sublime Text once and then never bothered later. There wasn't anything that exciting about it that I couldn't do one way or another anywhere else.

The barrier to payment is higher if the comparison with a free tool is mixed. If there was one big thing the free ones couldn't do or they were much worse then there would be a case for paying for your tools