Is there a way (outside of founder stubbornness) to reverse this norm? It's a pity that this has become the trend.
Pay for products. Use companies that have a real business model.
Could the answer be "Charge for products"?
Was BufferBox free? I thought they charged $.
Ostensibly they did, but early on they had so many coupon codes and promotions that I never once actually paid for it. And then it went free for a year after the Google acquisition.