They didn't necessarily choose it for the merits of the service. There's no all-things-equal decision on features, model, or viability that the rest of us make

They didn't necessarily choose it for the merits of the service. There's no all-things-equal decision on features, model, or viability that the rest of us make when one throws significant money at you and the others don't. It's a free choice, yes, but it's one biased by an external factor (money) rather than an intrinsic one (good tools, support, long-term viability). But then people who don't know or understand this yet might subscribe to one of these paid contributors and think, gee, Substack must be a great platform because Famous McBrain writes on it, as opposed to the subtly more accurate point that Substack's _money_ must be great because Famous McBrain took it.