I benefit hugely from all sorts of user-funded services I don’t have to pay for: Wikipedia, community social events, news sites, street music, porn, podcasts, green spaces, apps, public radio, etc. I’ve heard these donations called “user fee donations” to distinguish them from maximally altruistic donations.
User fee donations are a terribly expensive way to do good (better to donate to the EA Animal Welfare Fund) and a terribly expensive way to make myself superficially happy (better to buy Flavor-Ice popsicles). But they seem like a potentially affordable — and maybe even necessary — way to buy satisfaction with my contributions to my communities.
Do you donate to optionally user-funded services? Which ones, and how do you decide which ones? How much, and how do you decide how much?
To add on to your thoughts about argument 2: even if taking breaks with X podcaster is crucial to your personal productivity, you should still ask yourself whether X podcaster needs your money to continue podcasting. And then even if you decide they don't need your money to continue, but you really want those fuzzies from donating to X podcaster, then remember to purchase fuzzies and utilons separately.