I love  @SN (member and listen to the weekly pod) but both will remain niche if the end user has to pay. It's one of the reasons why I've struck out recommending SN to folks at my local Bitcoin meetups. 

Bitcoiners aside, normies are way too conditioned to get services for "free" and will gladly continue to give up their metadata in exchange for use. Hell, it's still difficult to get people to move between those free services.   

 True