DeltaBlast, i'll explain you:
Patchou doesn't have a "regular job", all money he earns is from freelance programming. Probally 95% of all his cash comes from the Messenger Plus! sponsor. Patchou would never be able to do this if MSN didn't exsist.
Microsoft sure does earn money in a lot of ways, but when you only look at MSN Messenger, Microsoft probally gets something like 95% of their MSN earnings trough the advertising in ther program.
Now why would it be fair for Patchou to remove advertising in Messenger and replace that whith his sponsor? That way Patchou will earn a living while he is destroying MSN Messeger, and after all... Plus! can't exsist without MSN Messenger.
There are thousands of other ways to get rid of the ads, Plus! really isn't unique in this. On the other hand custom sounds is something really unique. I am a beta tester and can tell you it's something never seen before in any kind of IM program. I know sound features are not that l33t... but Patchou created this feature in the first place becausae his statistics show that Sound Emotions is the number one used feature in his program, so sure there will be alot of people liking it.
Also, custom sound is not the only new thing in 3.50. I think everybody will find something nice when it comes out
.
/ 
