I'm not complaining about lack of donations by the way, that's never bothered me, but being told I can't add a link does smart a little.

By the way, I agree with Justin Tadlock in most respects, but would argue that it's still my right to add the link if I allow it to be turned off.

I know WordPress itself used to have blurb saying please link to them in the footer because it was their only form of promotion. I don't know if they still say that anywhere, but they used to. They're big enough they don't need it now, but my little plugins might benefit from the exposure (not from SEO, there's very little SEO benefits left for such links these days.

As a end user, I appreciate seeing the links when I go to someone's site, so I can find that plugin and use it myself.