I edited my post a bit, I think you have my answer there. In my small network, people like peakd more. And they only use ecency for the votes they get via their point system. Heck, I used to do that as well once upon a time. Imo, their userbase would be zero without them so the answer is simple.

If you ask me, at current prices, neither should be funded. They have made more than enough money all these years to stay in maintenance until we see better days. I mean, their devs love hive right? So they wouldn't mind spending a couple hours per month to keep them alive. And if not, we always have the legacy interface.