Who’s being exploited? It’s not like the app hides its true nature until you pay. People are upset at the idea of paying it something they don’t want to but that’s a completely imaginary scenario, those who think it’s good will pay for it and those who don’t won’t. I don’t think that justifies calling the guy names and assuming how he must’ve become (or has always been) a bad person.

I’ve no idea what you mean by legitimacy of YouTube, but if you think things like this hurt it wouldn’t it help to not have a big outrage that makes it reach even more people? Let it have a quiet death and maybe the media will stop creating these weekly how-dare-you-make-a-bad-product dramas