I also use paid relays, and WoT relays, and my own Haven relay. So yes, I agree that there are solutions people can take advantage of. However, these solutions disadvantage new users who are just trying Nostr out for the first time.
Discussion
I understand what the developers are saying. They are saying that the free relays are needed for new users.
In order for Nostr to grow you need free relays because if you don't. Then users don't want to spend time researching how to pay for a relay especially if they don't have a lightning address.
In a way it makes a bit of sense.
We can just tell users to move onto paid relays once they are comfortable on Nostr. It doesn't affect me too much. It's the free relays administrators that have to put up with that nonsense. Let them take the pain. zmy relay will continue to be paid. I don't like headaches.
It's a bit of a rough start for new users one way or the other. If all they have access to are free relays, then they will see a lot of spam early on that could cause them to just give up, especially if the spam is the only engagement they get.
Yes, some will give up but there's always that one or two that will stay. Exactly how Bitcoin was at the beginning. Some people give up fast and others quickly see the value in something.
but many of us on nostr know that nostr is the next big thing since Bitcoin. The giver up-ers will eventually come back.