I am not rich but I would agree to double and triple on my internet subscription if the Internet would be made significantly better (scarce and exclusively curated non-intrusive ads, no tracking, no DRMs, no forced/nudged "engagement", no automated enforcement, no paywalls, everything easy to download and or syndicate, etc.).
In fact I would already pay Google and Facebook if they would seriously stop treating me as a product and would consider me a client whom they would act in best interest of. Yet they don't even offer, even those who actually pay them get blackholed routinely.
I understand there are poor countries where people really can't pay so I don't insist the business model has to change for everybody everywhere.
They do. But their customers are their advertisers, not their users. Their users are literally the product. Their public services are bait for eyeballs.
If you were a fish, on a hook, would you offer to pay the fisherman for better tasting bait? The fisherman isn’t concerned about the bait as long as it’s good enough to catch you and send you to market.
