Clearly, these are long-time users and users on legacy plans, yet some core capabilities are now being locked behind “Max Mode.” What’s most frustrating isn’t the charge itself, but the feeling of: “You used to have this experience, and now you don’t; if you want to keep using it, pay more.”
To be honest, people are willing to pay for a good product, but at the very least the rules should be clear, the benefits should remain stable, and the upgrade logic should make sense. What’s happening now feels a lot like treating long-time users as the easiest group to squeeze: first build up the user base with early support, then gradually take back capabilities that were originally available by default, and finally call it a “new product strategy.”
If costs really have gone up and model calls have become more expensive, that can be stated honestly; users aren’t incapable of understanding that. But the current experience feels more like shrinking user benefits while packaging it as “product tiering.”
Put simply, what’s hardest to accept isn’t the price — it’s betraying long-time users.