How do you decide which services are worth paying for and which are not?

To what extend are you grateful for free services? I made another post roughly asking, who of you are willingly paying for the stuff you can have for free making life better for all of us. Some of your had interesting answers, some donated to wiki others to bitwarden or to some dev of FOSS software, that’s great, but now, since there are so many services, so many service mods, so many instances and so many FOSS apps (Android/Linux), so many FOSS websites and creators who you love, how do you prioritize which ones to pay for?

Also, how can the mods and the people you are donating to make it better?

I have heard a mod once say that he runs his server and it doesn’t take more than 10 bucks/(month or year, not sure) to do this, so, funding goals seems to be a good way of making sure everyone gets only the money they need and there is some equity in this, yeah, but what else.

Also, I am not a big proponent of paying for the digital stuff you need (physical stuff yes). I pirate materials and do it very often, but I don’t pity hollywood actors/directors who are unable to buy another yacht because people like me pirate, but paying for FOSS and people who support it seems to me to be a worthy cause.

PS: I might take a day or two to reply, but I want to hear you. Thanks for your replies