In reply to Alec Kinnear.

I'll follow up with the repo team privately about it... I don't want to name names publicly and be wrong about my interpretation of the rules.
What I see though are plugins that have disabled/sleeping functionality in their code which is hosted in the repo. Whole big swaths of the plugin. Major features. Maybe as big as headlights on a car. Kind of needed, right?

Those features are disabled unless you visit the developers site, sign up for an account, and pay for a license. There is then an activation button in the plugin which pings the key server, sees that you've paid, and gives you access to these other features. I would argue that is a violation of *you cannot “cripple” functionality in the plugin and then ask for payment or provide a code to unlock the functionality. All code hosted by WordPress.org servers must be free and fully-functional. *

In the case of our own plugin (Postmatic) we abstracted any functions which are part of our premium plan up onto our own Rails server. We then built an api. Once you are a premium user our plugin relies less on WP and your webhost and more serves as a gateway to our own server... where all of the good premium magic happens. We built it that way (a) so the gazillions of free users do not put stress on our own servers, (b) to give our paying customers a guaranteed quality experience that *just works* and (c) to follow the repo guidelines. Free users use the limited capabilities of the server they are hosted on, Premium users get to overcome any limitations on their hosting account by tapping into the the infrastructure we provide.

Again. I don't want to start a public witch hunt..... but there are benefits to us all being accountable to the rules.