In fact for many years this was the only value I saw in AGPL: to provide a best possible starting point for an upsell while claiming it was all about Free Software.
It's the least restrictive for user freedom.
MIT, Apache, and BSD have none of those restrictions on users. How is APL the "least restrictive"?
This is the part where the (A)GPL constrains the rights of its users. Requiring user A to give user B more liberal licensing is constraining the rights of A for the benefit of B. Even if you think it's the "right" way, it's still a constraint.
The "A" of the AGPL expands the distribution rules of the GPL to include network access but doesn't really expand the virality or combined-works parts. It "infects" your program just as much as any GPL program would.