Imgur seems like an interesting case study.
I kinda figure that's all 90% of the userbase actually wants from the feature?
Their core product isn't something people want to pay for (image hosting itself can be obtained anywhere, including from cloud storage subscriptions people already pay for), and their social side is at odds with the advertising business model - you need ads to survive, but ads revenue is forever decreasing and people will leave if you put too much ads.