See the thing is, I don't agree with the underhanded way developers keep doing this. This is NOT the first time this has happened.
First they make a decent app and develop a following, it's free and ad-free. They don't bother making a paid version despite MANY followers stating their desire to directly support the developers efforts.
Then, after the following has gotten sufficiently large, they shove ads in the app and don't offer ANY way to get rid of them (as in by paying directly). I have to conclude that the dev's do this intentionally due to the number of times it's happened. Basically put, the users of the program get duped.
The part that really annoys me (aside from how intrusive the ads can be, and often are) is if I want to support a developer I want to support THEM. Not the advertising company who's ads they tossed into their program. I want to support the DEVELOPER... Directly. If you're going to make an ad enabled program (especially if it didn't start out that way), then offer a paid version to disable the ads.
I want to support the ASTRO developer. But I won't use the program with ads in it after I've used it for so long without ads. If they come out with a paid version, I'll gladly buy it, otherwise I'll use something else. I'm honestly disappointed with "Metago" over this.