RE: Does everything have to be free on the hive blockchain?

You have some valid points and I don't pretend to know how things would work but we have to be clear that every platform and app need to have a viable business model. In my opinion relying on the DHF is not a sustainable model. Again, that's just my point of view.

A good example was Splinterlands, in order to be able to earn money with the game, you had to buy the starter pack. This didn't prevent people from joining Splinterlands. However, it probably encouraged them not to give up after the first trial.

Twitter has it's own business model but the difference with hive is that you can't earn money directly. I think it would be up to the platforms to define the price and people would then decide which platform they use accordingly.