Well...voiceovers don't need a whole lot of FX/processing.
True.
Sure, every DAW app has some including plugs, and there's plenty of freebies on the net...but some plugs are better than others, and some have features sets that the freebies don't.
I mean...I wouldn't just buy a basic EQ plug, when most free ones do the same...but many of the better the ones you buy have proprietary filter designs, and sometimes they are based on specific hardware under license. You won't always find a free version of the same thing...unless is a cracked version.
Plugins are software. No licenses needed to "copy" hardware. That kind of case wouldn't even make it to court. What they license, is the use of the trademarked name. Nothing else. There's no copyright on electronic schematics, just like there's no copyright on a cook's recipes. Why? Because the number of ingredients is limited. If there was copyright, every design possible would be someone's intellectual property in a very limited amount of time.
There is, however, copyright on board design. You can't copy printed circuits without a license. And often, more than half the development cost goes into a good printed circuit. Most of the other pieces come from the application notes the chip manufacturer puts out. Especially in this digital age. When it comes to simple circuits, like a mic preamp, only about a dozen basic designs exist. The rest isn't any good, way too expensive, or just not practical.
Trademarks are a skewed game in itself. When Apple tries to sue a diner in Luxembourg, called "Der Apfel", it's because they have to. If they didn't, it could be viewed as a precedence by (mostly) US law. It's ridiculous and costs both parties a ridiculous amount of money, but that's the way it goes.
Anyway...using some freebies and/or using cracked software has nothing to do with... "everything is free today".
I never said that.
"Everything is free today" is more of a moniker about how the way things work today. You can't start a SAAS company without offering a free service in most cases. Gmail is free, FB is free, Twitter is free...
That's a BIG problem for companies developing niche software. Medical, engineering, all things not "general public". They need to get venture capital, because sales channels as they used to exist before the net, are gone, or are pushing "free" products.
And when it comes to free VST's, I don't see any general purpose plugins worth buying. Whenever I have the chance to play with the big names, I'm left wondering why people buy these.
I do buy software. REAPER, fi. But I haven't bought any plugins in over ten years and I can't even remember those I've paid for long ago. Most of these are probably gone anyways.
I do support devs like Tokyo Dawn Labs, because their plugins are free, not restricted and you can buy an affordable 'Gentlemen's edition'. It doesn't offer anything extra, except a mention on the plugin and a good feeling.
I don't mind paying for good software either. Filemaker Pro or ARTA, fi. But I wouldn't spend a dime on an atrocity like MS Office, when I can get Open Office, fi.
Lots of these examples of expensive, outdated dinosaurs still survive because people don't know any better. And because the audio market is a very conservative market. The clearest example is Protools. The company behind it is dying. Nobody likes them. Their software is far from being the best on the market. But as long as the big guns (movie studios, fi) keep using it, everybody keeps believing it's the way to go. And these big guns stay with the company because they have invested far too much in Avid tech. Look at how Black Magic Designs is changing that market. Affordable, performant hardware, coupled to new, inventive software. Fast reaction to user's demands. That's how the future looks.
Of course, when the product itself is free, it usually means YOU are the product and the maker wants your data. But not (yet?) in the case of free plugins.