It's always mind-boggling how little HN commenters seem to understand about topics that they express themselves so confidently about.

"A small company like Kagi is allowed to spend money on silly things, why is everyone so upset about the t-shirts? It's the business owner's choice how to run the business."

Well, maybe because if you market your subscriptions as "help us build a nice thing by paying for it in an incomplete state" and other participatory slogans, people are going to expect to have involvement in the direction of the company...? And for the money to not be spent on unrelated things?