Almost all of the services people actually use Facebook for were things that they paid for in the past. It's certainly harder now that these things are "free",

Almost all of the services people actually use Facebook for were things that they paid for in the past. It's certainly harder now that these things are "free", but I think there would be a market for a Facebook clone that said "Hey, just give us $5 a month and we won't sell your data or bombard you with ads". Let's see, keeping up with your friend? That used to be the telephone, for which people paid by the minute - an hour long call with your friend or family in another state might run $5, every time you wanted to talk to them. Or you could mail a letter. Slower, but still costs money for paper, envelopes and a stamp. Wanted to share photos? First you had to buy a camera. Then you had to buy film. Then you had to pay to get the photos developed (extra for duplicates). These are clearly things that are (or at least were) worth money to people. But a stream of random snippets from people you haven't spoken to in 20 years, asinine clickbait, and political rhetoric? Yeah, nobody wants to pay for that.