Heard: the free tier is the marketing budget

Heard: the free tier is the marketing budget
That watermark or "posted via" tag on free-plan content isn't laziness — it's deliberate distribution. Word is several tools model free users purely as a customer-acquisition channel, where every published post is a tiny billboard. The product is the ad.
Why it matters: if a tool suddenly removes its free tier or kills the watermark, read it as a signal they found cheaper paid acquisition — or they're prepping to sell and cleaning up the unit economics. Free-tier changes are roadmap tea leaves.
Watching this.