I think this makes sense. I spent almost a year working on a startup because it was novel technology, easy money and good market timing. I never really stopped to think about the fact that I didn't even like the service. What a waste of time.
This stuff send like useless navel gazing to me. So, the future is just a massive increase in advertising? Wow, that's innovative. Also, who is going to be able to afford to advertise without revenue? Are advertisers going to advertise their advertising? Is the future of the Internet going to be a meta-circular vortex of nothingness?
Actually I think this guys way analyzing a business sounds pretty good to me. Forget the price, do you want to wake up running this business (or doing this idea etc) tomorrow after the deal is done. Not sure if it had anything to do with 'free' even though he tried to tie it in.
The same reasoning works well when considering whether you'd like to sign up for a service. If I'm going to have to spend hours on the phone with machines and inept customer-service people, do I really want this service? Or, at the very least, do I want to patronize this company?
I don't know; that sort of seems cliché to me. It also seems like something that sounds profound but isn't. I've never really found myself trying to buy something I wouldn't get if it was free.