I was an early subscriber. Many of the road segments in my local area were made by me. I was an early paid subscriber as well. I have dropped the paid part twice and came back twice. The first time when they shuttered what they considered downhill segments, the second time because of the rate hike, loss of monthly billing, and the way they went about it. The parts of Strava I value the most are not included in the free version. Age and weight leader boards. full leader boards, which for those of us that often are not even remotely near the top, that's useful. Segment history. That was rather valuable in a climb segment I was doing mostly weekly through the summer. I don't really care where I am overall but seeing just my attempts was useful in showing fitness gains. Matched rides and routes was useful this fall to find that I had regained the fitness I had before a job change several years ago. For me it is the data features that are worth the cost. The socail aspect is also nice but not as valuable as it formerly was. Many of my friends on there are no longer posting frequently here.

As far as those that believe that their free subscription adds value to those of us that pay. Not so much. People I know and ride with, yes, I like to see their rides and like to see their stats included in segments but random folks, nope. Besides that nearly every single bogus KOM was done by free users that ended a ride. and then tracked their vehicle for miles before ending the ride on Strava or Garmin. At least with Strava there is a way to get these removed; Garmin Connect, nope making the segment leader boards worthless.