They've truly demonstrated something I believed untrue prior, and that's the notion that a company can keep growing while maintaining very strong opinions and principals. I switched to Mullvad after PIA's acquisition, thinking it would be a temporary stop until they inevitability alienated their original userbase. But nope, they've only gotten better.

I'm not a business guy so I might be full of shit, but I think they're playing the long game and know who their audience is. They're trying to distinguish themselves from a bazillion fly-by-night VPN providers: not doing the current standard 'vacuum up every conceivable bit, nibble, and byte in case it's useful for marketing or resale later' is a great way to a) get a great word-of-mouth rep from credible people, and b) get a customer base more compelled by marketing real improvements to your core ecosystem than totally BS super flashy marketing and ad budgets. Flashy marketing might be super effective in the short term, but if genuine improvements to your core offering are your biggest selling point, that seems like it would directly contribute to long-term sustainability.

Given, this is assuming everything they say is legit. It's kind of hard to not be jaded these days.