The other reason why Twitter and Reddit went paywall is because of machine learning training feeds. ML is looking to decreased the lag between training and human interaction.

It’s said much of the digital information available has already been consumed by the advanced ML engines today - reaching the next cliff to climb in optimising outcomes with the same data - meaning smaller incremental improvement over the recent rapid improvements.

While your data may not be as valuable for advertising, it’s the future feed into these ML learning flows. In a sense, ML businesses are pricing out the rest of the market for things like API access. It’s important to understand this is coming and consider consequences - like the crazy low APi limits to price ratio.

If non-corporate and non-government controlled AI systems have a chance, people need to exodus these closed platforms for their data to even the playing field.