I wonder if construction workers also expect someone to give them free hammers and nails if they want to work on hobby projects. I doubt that. So maybe then software engineers shouldn't be so stuck up about not paying for their tools either?
That's fine, and yeah, perhaps my analogy isn't the greatest. But if you're ok with the free tools, why complain about the paid ones not being free as well? That's ridiculous to me at least. The paid ones offer value to clearly enough people to still be in business, and if you don't find that value useful to you, then don't .. use it?
all the while you coulda probably just made it in VS code for free...