He was also doing a PhD at the same time, and writing a dissertation is not exactly a small feat.

Exactly. And lifetime is just about 100 bucks, who cares. Sure it sounds like more than the casual $2 you throw at a random app to remove ads, but considering that I used Sync daily for ~12 years, it’s really just peanuts in the long run.

I’ve bought a bunch of seemingly cheaper apps and then used them 10 times over 2 years and they ended up discontinued, that’s like 20 cents per use.

I’d have racked up tens of thousands with Sync that way. Easily the most used app on my phone.

If it’s open source, the developer can’t monetize it. Everyone will just be able to remove ads and compile it from scratch.

FOSS is all fine and dandy, unless being a developer for a popular service (or app) is your sole source of income.