Opportunity cost to an extent: instead of convincing them into becoming paying customers, and having them word-of-mouth promote you, they slip away to a competing service, which they may also indeed decide to pay for.
I think the most steelman version is that he argues efficient software does in fact provide value to users. Whether or not they know it. And perhaps not always in terms of the application they have running right in front of them, but at a systemic or societal level. Little things add up, especially since software has eaten nearly every crumb.
Interesting angle, that free will has a quantity. I can certainly see an argument that a more intelligent being has more freedom -- because it has more options available -- so perhaps also more free will.
To be precise, the study demonstrated that the decision is registered before the person is able to report having decided. In other words, the oversight of consciousness is simply delayed. This seems perfectly reasonable: the brain is mechanical, there are limits on "bandwidth" and simultaneity.
> Or try to think of a single thought (like a red triangle or pink elephant) for more than a few moments.
This is something that people can and have trained themselves on. It's far from impossible, even if it's not a simple skill.
It doesn't fly like a duck, that's the point. It flies like a cyberduck with a rocket pack.
Cyclists who behave badly are cyclists. People riding vehicles with motors that let them go that fast simply aren't cyclists. We don't call ICE motorcycle riders "cyclists" in that sense either.