I, for one, will not be using Ardour anymore because I don’t want a PayPal account. Even if I wanted a PayPal account, I can’t get one because I don’t own a cell phone. A cell phone is required in order to receive mandatory text message(s) from PayPal.
How many potential new Ardour users are NOT Ardour users because of PayPal?
Nobody knows the answer to this question.
How many Ardour users have given up on Ardour because they cannot upgrade to the latest version?
Nobody knows the answer to this question either.
How much money is the Ardour development team giving up because of the PayPal wall?
Nobody knows the answer to this question either, but it might be one hell of a lot!
Goodbye Ardour.