I think you could also opt for longterm aligned gains if done correctly. The thing is more the control or leverage the company usually has over the token.
Building a FOSS chat app isn’t easy — it takes a ton of time, effort, and resources. Simplex probably went down that token route just to cover costs.
Keychat, on the other hand, is trying something interesting — using ecash sats as postage stamps for messages.
And then there’s 0xchat & XChat — we don’t have any monetization model, but we’ve been lucky to get steady grant support from nostr:nprofile1qythwumn8ghj7ct5d3shxtnwdaehgu3wd3skuep0qyt8wumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgtcqypu8xwr40lp96ewdj2fef408wy70gd3carf9n6xu7hrnhq6whpgly925h0z , which helps us keep building and moving forward.