The problem is that Sergey was a Wunderkind, if you like. His code was minimal, clean and perfectly maintained. Conscious renouncement instead of nonsensical features and menu items. Focus on performance instead of as many features as possible to advertise with. Yoast is exactly the opposite.

The downfall of wpSEO started for me at that time already with the fact that one of the first updates was to integrate an own menu item with icon. That alone contradicted the concept of wpSEO. Then nothing came for a long time.

But I contradict you in the point that AddOns etc. would be the solution. That would be exactly what I don’t want. Most plugins nowadays come with Freemium, but in the end I pay again and in order for all this to work, I also need code that allows such addons. I paid for wpSEO, very gladly even, and got a stable, minimal, very performant system for it, without add-ons or ballast. For me that was also the USP.

But if neither communication nor much is done, such a plugin dies. And when all regular customers are frightened away because they run after a yoast, without a goal of their own, nobody is in the mood anymore.

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