All that paying does is prove you’ll pay whatever they want. Just like a blackmailer, it’s never enough. They always escalate in their attempts to extract “value”.
It’s the same damn story, time after time. “Oh, we put a few ads to cover expenses - it’ll be limited, we promise.” 3 months later: “We have a premium plan that hides ads.” Another 3 months: “We now have informational banners on premium for our own content. Since it’s our own, it’s totally not an ad!”
Then just: “Pay us a monthly rate and get served ads.”