The median wage for a programmer in the US is right at 100k. 1-2k/month is 12-24k/yr.

I cant think of a single person who thinks 12-24% of their yearly salary is “pennies.”

Either way, those “pennies” came with a commitment. He could have done a low one time cost like sync for reddit and faffed about, but instead he committed to subscription payments, and those carry an expectation of support and features. As a programmer, he know this.

The simple fact is that people are paying for something they aren’t getting.