In reply to Derek.

Personally, I'm more likely to prefer a theme or plugin that does have a premium version, if the free version is non-sleazy. I reason that the plugin/theme with no paid version is more likely to go away when its author has a change of life circumstances / gets bored / can't afford to keep supporting it / etc. Whereas the people behind a product with a paid version have more "skin in the game", and more resources to enable them to keep providing support and future versions which are compatible and have more features.

Of course, freemium schemes can be abused. Everything can be abused. Freemium schemes, in the here-and-now, enable lots of great plugins to exist that almost certainly wouldn't otherwise. Look at the first 30 'popular' (i.e. most-installed) list at https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/popular/ - freemium is the most largest category there. Obviously, freemium can be done well and produce the best plugins, as well as badly and produce really bad ones.

In my view, the selling software/selling services distinction can be made in an excessively artificial way. When we buy software, we understand that we're also buying services with it (support, access to updates, funding next year's improved/compatible-with-future-stuff version). I submit that few WP users operate with a hard software/services distinction, or even think that much about it. That's something, as far as they're concerned for ideologues. The typical user has a blend of more or less time and money which he/she is willing to trade in order to achieve the goal of having an acceptable website.

My view, then, would be that the plugins/themes in the wordpress.org directory should be honest and not advertise features that aren't accessible without payment, unless this is clearly marked. But, beyond that, users should be allowed to make their own decisions, rather than steered towards some particular ideology that is serving someone else's goals rather than theirs. To be sure, some users might happen to have the same ideology. But the directory itself needs to serve the many, not the few.