Have to be honest, while I like the concept of these services, I've never really found the motivation to use them. If I'd came across Neocities in the 90s or 00s I'd have been all over it, but it's hard to justify today when I'm already paying for web hosting elsewhere. It's like, if a more powerful solution exists elsewhere, I struggle to work within the limitations of a more restrictive one.

You said it yourself: you're already paying. Lots of people don't want to pay, so they use this for their hobby.

You're not the target audience. My son is 13 and has his own website, started to learn HTML when he was 11. All I did was tell him about Neocities (and allow him to sign up) and he figured out the rest.

The majority of folks won't be setting up their own web-hosting, and this can fit them.

We have to remember that everything doesn't have to be for everyone to be valid or reasonable.