Free is never free but why does free have to go from quite non-shitty to shitty overnight for no discernible reason? The point is here that "just here to blog" bloggers like me have been able to pay WP to have a custom domain, some storage, some SEO and some SM tools managed by WP – and nothing else. But now, to point a custom domain at my WP site, I need to cough up $180/yr. It's not just the free plan shrinking further, a fact you're commenting on, but that the sole alternative plan lies at the other extreme.