You're right that anyone can build their own client and bypass it—that's the nature of open protocols. But this isn’t about forcing anything on everyone. It’s about setting a new standard that high-quality clients can adopt voluntarily to improve the network.

Plenty of things in Nostr aren’t enforced by the protocol but are still widely adopted—like relay selection, zaps, or even UI/UX norms. Same thing here. If enough clients and users value this “pay-to-follow” model to reduce spam and bot activity, it becomes a social norm. It’s opt-in capitalism. And guess what? Bots don’t pay.

So no, I’m not trying to restrict freedom. I’m offering a market-based filter for higher signal, and those who want the benefits of a cleaner, more organic network will choose to implement it. You can still go use a free-for-all client if you want—but don’t expect everyone to want that chaos.