[tantalic]

As someone who almost always has a text editor open, I have paid for many over the years. In particular multiple versions of TextMate and multiple versions of Sublime Text. I have also been responsible for getting licenses for my team(s) at work.

I now find that the editor I am happiest with is VS Code, not because it's free but because of the extensibility and community support it brings. I'd happily pay for it - but I think the nature of it being free is what has brought so much community support to it.