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your choices are to pay up or shut down.

Another choice is to switch to a different model, perhaps open source this time.

Package manager incidents (like leftpad) have shown that just because it's open source doesn't mean it can't do damage to your project.

Another choice is to write code and learn. Especially if you are 16 and have all day.

We are talking about running a business. In business world no one ever cared where code is coming from, the only concern is how much the code costs.