That might be true in theory, but in practice companies like Intuit and HR Block use dark patterns to trick users into paying when they should qualify for free

That might be true in theory, but in practice companies like Intuit and HR Block use dark patterns to trick users into paying when they should qualify for free filing. You can read about the settlement from ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/article/intuit-will-pay-millions-to-customers-tricked-into-paying-for-turbotax https://www.propublica.org/article/intuit-will-pay-millions-...