Pure alarmism. "Help keep X free of charge" is just an apology for the existing business model; incidentally, that's the same business model that keeps clickbait commentators like this in existence.<p>Making FB/IG paid would either be the final nail in their coffin, or just make them not-pointless. So it's win-win.
I think it would be good if Facebook charged $10/month for an ad-free tracking free experience.<p>Sadly I suspect if you ran the numbers, you'd have to charge more like $80/month to fully compensate them from lost revenue. Only the richest users will pay, and those are the most valuable users.