-)) yes, and lots of work is being doing in free grids. I think it is wonderful. I do a photo blog for Metropolis here:
http://minethere.blogspot.com/...
just to showcase some of what is done in the free Metaverse all of the time-))
As you point out, using other words, it is a lot of building and testing...only natural some grids will come and go. I prefer creating regions myself, something that I could not do near as well in commercial grids and I certainly couldn't save my oars and iars or any of the other things I can easily do in opensim.
But Metro has a lot to offer for most any needs one wants. Quite a few well-known regions have come there from osg and quite a few ppl are coming from all over. Lots of quality free content around.
I personally think the sl clone model that commercial grids use will go away, or, possibly, some will see the trends and do some kind of blend of both. Kitely is doing that and has some cool and innovative ideas...which is why I like it a lot.
I expect some of these commercial grids, all of which have all sorts of issues relating to the continual vying for sl content, and other issues, will disappear over time, tho some will hang on and squeeze everything they can out of their residents until they close the doors.
This has happened.
People should keep in mind that anything they put in a commercial grid then belongs to the grid owners also. It is pure naivete to not consider the fact that grids backup regions, ostensibly for their residents, but of course that means they have them also. In fact, it is more owned by commercial grid owners than it is by residents since residents can't even do their own backups to their own computers.
Seems a waste of time to me.