I wonder if that will ever happen. IMO even if all ads went away, the freemium model where a couple of paying users bear the burden of supporting the developer

I wonder if that will ever happen. IMO even if all ads went away, the freemium model where a couple of paying users bear the burden of supporting the developer wins in the end, due to the “natural” marketing of having lots of users. Now, this of course won’t work for niche programs.