Ummmm, I think, unfortunately, you nailed it. The current snowest forum regime is exceedingly arrogant and rather blatant with regard to pilfering of funds from those who make the forum work in the first place...
Paying members having to view ads is pretty "forward thinking". Most places get rid of the ads for the basic fee. It appears you can do this with snowest as well, just another $7 a year on top of what you already paid.
The arrogance is easy to spot. There are at least two threads going right now about the big new header banner with "subscribe" highlighted but, strangely no word from the fearless leader. I think that pretty much tells us where admin stands, no words necessary.
He's too busy pimping his new trailer build, to worry about the preferences of the forum members.