It literally isn’t.
Discussion
nostr:npub19w22arm00lfx3u0d2lakh54nv9r9whe2p7hzljsyxcl434xp6pssc7rr2f nostr:npub12262qa4uhw7u8gdwlgmntqtv7aye8vdcmvszkqwgs0zchel6mz7s6cgrkj nostr:npub1etqwgv34spk6p98s0pa9kp8zntgyevdrcl49eas7mswr8pe5pq4sfj8ues we've had this convo before, it's only cheap because very few people actually use nostr. also you have to do spam mitigation jannying which will take up a lot of time
Most likely, relays won’t always work the way they do right now. By the time it no longer scales cheaply, it won’t matter anymore. Screenshot this.
That's literally half of my disability pension 😅
Okay, it may be inexpensive, but it takes some effort and time.
In any case, free relays is just as available as paid relays. There is no conflict 🙂