Providing paid service doesn’t make one exclusionary of the poorest. You are free to give discounts or free service to vulnerable groups in exceptional circumst

Providing paid service doesn’t make one exclusionary of the poorest. You are free to give discounts or free service to vulnerable groups in exceptional circumstances, requesting a verification of your choice in place of a financial roadblock. While giving them status otherwise equivalent to that of regular paid accounts, you can still apply more sensitive monitoring procedures to them if you have grounds to expect false positives and abuse—good thing now you don’t have to do it with every account. What being a paid service does make you is a player in a game with certain agreed-upon rules, by which your incentives are aligned with those of your customers. Giving your paying users the right of the ultimate vote (with their wallets), you in a way paint yourself into a corner where you can either act in their best interests or go broke. It matters less if you are a huge corporation (many revenue streams), and it doesn’t guarantee you won’t cheat and violate the rules (take my money and sell my data, why not!), but still as a user I find it a useful signal.