I really liked the post (and the sentiment about 6wunderkinder as a Bostonian in Germany). However, I also really liked the reasoning of Nate Weiner on why he chose to make Pocket free:

http://blog.ideashower.com/post/21276590202/why-pocket-went-...

As you pointed out, it's up to us customers what kind of vision we want to support, the "low-risk", immediate revenue model or the long-tail, high-risk, winner-takes-it-all model. I totally agree that too few people are aware of the inherent differences and then cry if the latter fails or gets shutdown after an acquihire.

That being said, I prefer Pocket over Instapaper