The dev has to do what they have to do to feed themselves. If you really like the app, deal with the ads or pay for the app. I personally can’t deal with ads so I’m on Eternity for Lemmy (through the fdroid store)
It might give use different growth rate but Infinity is infinite, it’s like the elementary school playground argument saying “infinity + 1” there is no “infinity + 1”, it’s just infinity. Infinity is the range of all the numbers ever, you can’t increase that set of numbers that is already infinite.
Yeah I have to admit I am using gboard. Although, I do have the network turned off for the application, so functionalities like built in gif search and google translate don’t work. If you don’t find a keyboard you like and want to try out gboard this would be the most private way. I mean I feel like you shouldn’t allow network to any keyboard app even if it’s audited and open source, it really has no reason to phone home.