A number of alternatives were mentioned in this thread. User referrals; a better fleshed-out premium tier with actual added value without deteriorating the free tier; a longer transitioning period; a less ridiculous either/or (forcing users to decide between mobile & desktop, wut?); more pricing/tier differentiation; a genuine enterprise solution that finances the free tier and creates brand awareness and a good image; offering a self-hosted version at a higher (approx. 24x monthly pro payment per user) one-time price point for individuals, education, SMBs or a higher price for larger companies. This is just from the top of my head, and I'd argue that any one of them would've been better than this severely strange cause of action. There are endless ways how this could have been handled better without damaging the brand or user trust (if that ever played a significant role).
Also, you seem to be offering a false choice here, if I may say so respectfully. The way I understand it, the choice is not between Pro and Free with ads. The choice is between Free with highly invasive data mining trackers and Pro with highly invasive data mining trackers.
As for the trackers being analytical tools, well, a distinction without a (significant) difference in this case. I responded to that above. You could easily make a case that these trackers are worse than the addition of a random, not overly invasive ad network.
At this point, if I could advise LastPass, I'd just totally backtrack, apologize deeply, commit to keeping the free tier for the foreseeable future, remove all but one of the trackers, commit to a total privacy-centric policy ("The password safe users will always be able to trust") and take that time to build a convincing value proposition for anyone who pays for Slack, Teams and WinRAR (i.e. professional users and enterprises), not a student or someone's grandma who will now have to pay up or be tracked and have only half the functionality it relied on for years...
I'm frankly convinced that (not overnight but in the long-term), revenue will be much higher and more stable. LastPass could still be the first (or second, after uBlock Origin) browser plugin everyone installs on a new system. But next quarter might be a blood-bath compared to the projections their private equity friends did in expectation of finally getting to sell all that preciousss user data. ;-)
Also, you seem to be offering a false choice here, if I may say so respectfully. The way I understand it, the choice is not between Pro and Free with ads. The choice is between Free with highly invasive data mining trackers and Pro with highly invasive data mining trackers.
As for the trackers being analytical tools, well, a distinction without a (significant) difference in this case. I responded to that above. You could easily make a case that these trackers are worse than the addition of a random, not overly invasive ad network.
At this point, if I could advise LastPass, I'd just totally backtrack, apologize deeply, commit to keeping the free tier for the foreseeable future, remove all but one of the trackers, commit to a total privacy-centric policy ("The password safe users will always be able to trust") and take that time to build a convincing value proposition for anyone who pays for Slack, Teams and WinRAR (i.e. professional users and enterprises), not a student or someone's grandma who will now have to pay up or be tracked and have only half the functionality it relied on for years... I'm frankly convinced that (not overnight but in the long-term), revenue will be much higher and more stable. LastPass could still be the first (or second, after uBlock Origin) browser plugin everyone installs on a new system. But next quarter might be a blood-bath compared to the projections their private equity friends did in expectation of finally getting to sell all that preciousss user data. ;-)