This makes no sense honestly. VGC at the time was far less sophisticated in so many ways, the average level was significantly lower as well. It's not like nobody ever gives a team for free or a report for free, but it cannot always be done and the reason is very simple: we are competing with you guys, do you understand that? Why is coaching not for free? Why are patreons not for free? Did you ever wonder why?
Because a top player, or anybody else, would have no interest in making a threat out of a student for future tournaments -- not for free. If it's a friend? In that case, sure, but not with strangers.
That being said, I understand who thinks that X amount of money for a single hour of coaching is too much. Pick the coach that best fits your pocket, or alternatively grind as hell and try to passively learn from videos and streams. I never had coaching sessions from others, over time I made some friends who helped me, and still I made a very solid career so far. It just takes more time, but if I had coaching lessons from the beginning I would have learned much faster. And you know what time really is? Money. If you have it, don't spend. If you don't have it, try to take the most from the free contents or consider spending in order to learn quicker from coaching and advanced reports. Your choice.
I've been saying this. I get times are tough but come on.
I miss the vgc community from over a decade ago, where the standard was that info like this was released publicly with no gate