Former software developer here with 30+ years experience.
The whole business model for software has drastically changed over the past 25 years. People aren't walking into a store and buying software off the shelf like in the 90's.
Software isn't free just because the end-user didn't have to pay for it directly out of pocket.
Apps with ads are an obvious example.
Apps like MS Office are now using a software-as-a-service model where the user has to pay monthly or yearly for a full featured software suite.
Google provides apps like Maps for free, but they also collect data on things like traffic patterns that they can sell to the DOT at a lower cost and with better accuracy than a traffic study being commissioned.
The cost to produce software is also MUCH lower than ever. The time required to build an app that might have taken a year or longer in the early 2000's could likely be built in 4 weeks now and with less skilled people.
The cost of software decreasing was inevitable but the demand has increased dramatically as almost everyone has a smartphone now and many have apps built into their vehicle. So yes, Jenvon's paradox has seemed to hold up over the test of time, although to me this paradox just seems more like common sense.
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