Neither of those mean “everything has to be free” though. Different means different, it doesn’t mean “better in every way that I want”
You want free deposits, I’m glad that I don’t have to pay for failed Direct Debits and understand that something has to offset that. Do I want my cake and eat it (no failed DD charge & free deposits) sure I do, but I realise that’s not necessarily feasible right now.
Can Starling do it for free, I’m sure they can, I’m very pleased they can, I even ate a bit of paper in celebration of it! But I also understand that Starling have other revenue streams that aren’t available to Monzo right now and that’s fantastic.
At the end of the day I want the banks I use to stick around, and if Monzo need to charge for deposits to do that then that’s fine. If Santander feel they need to charge me £30 for missing a Direct Debit to provide the other features they offer, then that’s also fine.