Totally agree. Things that you work on often start off as intellectual curiosity of “why does the world work this way?”

Money often comes as a side effect but not the motivation that drives you to build in the first place.

This is something that has come up many times for our company over the last 20 years. You can't sell the bean counters on quality of life. You need to show lower costs, higher quality results, or faster time to market - that's what gets you in the door.

The thing that keeps you in the door and makes usage grow is the quality of life. Especially in the business world, most software is terrible. If people like using your software, they will tell others about it and they will be more accepting when things inevitably go wrong. The ease of use of our software and the immediate service we provide when customers ask for help are time and again the things they say keep them using our tools. With good support, even a frustrated bug report can turn into a happy experience.

In broad strokes, yes you are right in some cases.

But in most cases you don't see quality of life improvements unless you also get users.

In other words building it is not enough. Lives need to use it to be improved.

Monetizing an app forces you to concentrate on articulating that value. It frees up resources (ie money) to spend on spreading the word. It offers you feedback on whether this is a meaningful use of your time or not.

Dont get me wrong. An app can add value to a single person. You can give it away for free. There's nothing wrong with that.