Thanks, I acknowledge your position about the monthly fees. SteemTracked was originally free and it being completely free in future is definitely a goal. The only way to use it for free now is to upvote (min. 50%) and resteem the latest post while it's active.
The feedback on price is 50/50 at the moment. As my choice of dependencies is 100x better now, the cost to maintain SteemTracked has increased. I don't have any backers of the project so I have to use my own funds to promote posts. If the value of my post rewards were high, SteemTracked would be completely free.
The "others on the market" either have a model to support the project or will come to the realisation that it's not worth continuing/updating/fixing if it can't be financially supported.