Actually, I just thought of something.
Doesn't this change mean that Nexus is actually taking a position against itself in the Parlor vs. Cathedral debate it had all those years ago? That Nexus is essentially saying that free mods must be Cathedral, mod maker's wishes be damned but that paid mods must be Parlor, regardless if the community or users want them to be more open or treated the same?
EDIT: This whole thing about "free modding being sacred" too really stinks because it seems like Nexus is okay with making money off of mods or modding-related services through ads and their subscription service, but seems to have a problem when Bethesda and individual modders do the same thing directly on the mods. I wanna know why Nexus thinks their Netflix/Youtube Premium-esque monetary scheme is okay, but Bethesda's Point of Sale/By-Item scheme isn't.