LadyTass2001 If you think about it though, gifts were never a substantial source of income for authors. Do the math, and you'll see that a novel that received 30000 ss in gifts only received 600$ (that doesn't take any potential cut that webnovel grabs into account). It's really not a lot when you consider that most novels that have been going on for months or more have not reached that threshold. In fact, it seems I cannot find fifteen novels on the entire platform that have reached that level in gifts.
So in reality, gifts are more of a way for hardcore readers to deplete their ss than for authors to get a real increase in their income. A daily payment of ss spread across hundreds (if not thousands) of paying readers is the best way to increase author profits, and subsequently webnovel profits.
And after giving this some more thought, I also feel like another issue is they realized someone willing to pay 25$ for unlimited reading would spend a lot more without that option.
Take your own case for example. You say you now have 9 books in your library. I'm gonna assume they're all premium and that you pay an average of 6 ss per book. In a 30 days month, that's 1620 ss and 32$. Of course, we're not taking bonus ss into account, but you can see how easily you go beyond the 24.99$ option. Spread that across a large number of readers, and it adds up real fast.