It's a bit of a catch-22 because while Lemmy and the Sync for Lemmy userbase is small the dev needs to ask for more to keep the lights on.

If there was a larger pool of users who might potentially subscribe then the dev wouldn't have to charge as much.

But from a user perspective it might seem like a smaller/newer platform like Lemmy doesn't justify a higher cost.

For me personally I am happy to pay it because I used and loved Sync for years on Reddit and having had the experience with creating a Reddit app the dev has been able to provide a more complete/polished interface for Lemmy than possibly any other app available right now.

As a sync user, I agree, $20 is a steep price for what lemmy is currently offering. If I'm sure I'm gonna staying on lemmy for years (like I did for reddit), im probably gonna pay. But only time will tell. But so far the als I've seen are really not that frequent or intrusive, and I'm just happy I have sync back tbh.

But it is $30 on my end to remove the ads on sync. I completely agree with you, and I had sync for years. I am currently using Jerboa, and it fits my needs.

You just answered yourself there's alternative apps. If you don't want to pay for kid ads go use one of them. You don't have to use sync

What rubs me the wrong way is the $20 ask to remove ads

I would feel the same way if Sync was the one and only option to view Lemmy on mobile but it's not. You can use all the other FOSS apps which don't have ads.

By the way you can install a global adblocker on your phone to remove all (well, most let's say) ads across your device. I use one and don't see any ads on Sync, just a blank square.