For me, the rub is: it seems like they just don't offer that much tangible value, and are basically asking me to just finance their continued lack of innovation. The Strava forums have been rife with major and basic bugs that have gone unfixed for years. It's a running joke over there that it's nearly a waste of keystrokes to feature request.

Put another way: I happily pay something like $150 / year for TrainerRoad, I recently started somewhat happily paying for Zwift, and we all pay for other subscriptions at points in our lives. The thing is, I just don't know what Strava really offers me. The closest I've come to paying for it would be the Live Segments. I'd also consider paying for really good mapping but I haven't gotten their route exports to work on my Wahoo (I think that's a Wahoo thing, not a Strava thing to be fair.) I just don't feel compelled to toss $60 their way so that I can see that my friends did their daily run workout. I'm not going to just outright quit Strava because my data automatically pushes there anyway, so it's zero investment on my end, but I don't really feel like I'm getting that much in return. If they want to implement some features that I see will actually benefit me, I'll happily pay.
And lastly, maybe I'm just not in a high enough income bracket, but I've never understood the "It's only $XX!" argument. We all make value determinations. Anyone who thinks $60 is a throwaway amount can throw it my way, if you want.

EDIT: And actually, to clarify, I'm not even upset at Strava per se. They are a company and they need to earn money, perfectly fine. I think I have a more general frustration in that I want them to succeed, and it seems like they just keep missing the mark on how to find a sustainable business model. In a way, I almost want them to convince me to pay. I happily would, and a massively successful Strava benefits us all, in some small way, I bet. But you're right though Matt, I don't pay now and my life isn't really changing with this change, so it's not really a huge deal. I guess I just want to see them do a great job and I feel like this isn't it.

---

JustinDoesTriathlon

Owner, FuelRodz Endurance.