I don't really understand why you're using ad-supported proprietary software that you've never paid a dime for (or given a dime to, since you use uBO), claiming that you don't use GIMP or Krita instead because the former "is terrible" and the latter isn't meant for cropping (a trivial, fundamental feature of the software), and then acting entitled to use the Photopea author's own personal work with zero compensation. So you have free alternatives (as in beer and as in freedom), refuse to do even the bare minimum to learn how to use them, and then go full "you took my only food; now I'm gonna starve" when Photopea's author stops you from using their own site/web app for free that they run and maintain at their own expense.

If anything, you seem entitled and willfully ignorant, and I say that from the perspective of someone who resents digital advertising and proprietary software.

I’m confused what your issue is with the dev. He seems to have posted because uBO was breaking the site for premium users and then got told “just stop monetizing effectively.” Only one reply (don’t use such an obnoxious way to insert the ad sidebar) was actually helpful, though it was at odds with part of his monetization strategy (pay for Premium to get that extra space).

If uBO devs had said “Sure, give this account premium access and we’ll check it out” and he’d refused, that would be different, but instead they said there was nothing he could do to help them and banned him from participating.

It also doesn’t seem that he’s intentionally breaking the app when uBO is in use. Rather, uBO breaks the app when ads aren’t being served and he is now detecting when this happens and serving a message about the fact.

Does anyone know of similar image editors out there that can batch-crop images in a certain aspect ratio/resolution and then export them to webp?

Not similar, but Image Magick can crop images from the cli and has webp support.

GIMP is terrible, sorry

Its actually not, but if you really hate the interface then try photogimp

He's not forcing you into a subscription model, he wants you to either allow ads or go to a subscription model.

You don't need to pay 8 Euro a month, you just need to allow the ads.

It's not broken to prevent ad blockers, we all got used to a system that wasn't sustainable, and now we're seeing what is actually required for sites and apps to survive.

I think you’re taking heat a little bit unfairly.

Most of it seems to come from one user who seems to hate me in particular. :D But it's fun to start a controversial topic once in a while. At least I'm not getting banned for having a different opinion (which would've definitely happened on Reddit).

Krita in Linux has been amazing. I've never used Affinity, and I'm far from a pro... But I can do most of what I used to do in Photoshop in Krita fairly naturally. It's way easier to transition to than GIMP ever was.

nonfree as in with ads and not freedom