In reply to Otto.

Thanks for the reply Otto. I didn’t mean to imply that Automattic is using a fake service. Just that their functionality *could* be included inside the distributed plugin instead. Maybe there are benefits to doing payment integration and sending emails and storing api keys as a service but lots of other plugins accomplish these tasks inside the plugin itself.

My main point was that there’s an incentive to put block functionality in a service if doing so lets the developer then use more effective upgrade UI that would otherwise not be allowed by the guidelines “crippleware”
policy.