“people who pay money have made a real trade-off if they never pay any money they make no sacrifice they make no trade-off and it's not that you can't trust people who have never made a sacrifice or a trade-off it's just if they've never made the tradeoff of paying money then everything is a hypothetical”

Only research people who already made a real trade-off

Paying customers outrank free users for any pricing or roadmap decision — money changing hands is the only signal that proves intent. If there aren't enough paying customers yet, the next-best segment is people who paid for a competitor or adjacent product. Skip the people who've never made any related trade-off; their answers are hypothetical.