I know this isn’t a very interesting comment, but just to provide some balance to the mostly negative comments I’m seeing:

It’s interesting that you did the experiment, and I appreciate you sharing your results. It all seems reasonable, even if a bit depressing.

This was also my thought! OP is going to get a lot of arrows for this article, but it's a genuinely great write up that matches a lot of my experience with mass-market products.

It's a great account for people to reflect on. I've immediately sent this article to several early-stage founders who are burning astounding amounts of time on undesirable customers.

Same here. I feel it's what every software owner thinks, but no one is willing to admit because of the backlash.