This doesn't seem to have anything to do with the article or its author, who switched not because of cost but because of unavoidable telemetry and tracking.

What I find truly bizarre is how many virtual monopoly owning companies, rather than concentrate on maximising the financial gains available from their enviable dominance of a market segment, instead focus on miserablising user experience and instrusively degrading their paying customers' sense of ownership and enjoyment in using the software they produce.