It's actually stunning how off-putting it is. I started Duolingo because I was in a relationship with someone and wanted to learn their language. I paid for subscription because I didn't want to be assaulted with ads and upsells (and I believe in paying for software in general and I think subscriptions can be a fair business model), but even as a paying customer it was miserable!

It's so fucking lousy with gems and upsells and quests and "try the AI call, you get one for free and then you can upgrade to a more expensive subscription!". The gamification of everything in Duolingo is so bad. And, as you say: I feel like I'm wasn't learning any of the fundamentals, can't you just tell me how to conjugate this verb and then testing me instead of making a dumb guessing game out of it?

Compare it to (say) YouTube Premium: I know a lot of people hate it, and that it's an expensive subscription, but I honestly think it's pretty fair. All the commercialization and upsell go away entirely, you get a very clean experience for something that I use more than any other streaming service. Don't mind paying for it at all. Not Duolingo though, I cancelled it after a week and a half.

> it's become a gameified mess, rather than actually teaching necessary grammar and language concepts.

They would be seen as a stuffy edtech companion app if they did the unsexy work of teaching. Gamification = user growth and engagement = investor money.