Yes, it is paid. I recently signed up for the 30 day play as a test drive and see if it made sense to me... And it really is game changing.

Torrent may be enough most of the time, but Stremio has a serious problem about speed, I don't know why. I enabled the "ultra fast" settings in the menu, but I can't get the same speed I'd get downloading the same torrent through any torrent client.

It made it impossible to watch 4gb movies, for example, I was basically stuck with lower quality 1-2gb ones.

Real debrid changed that. I watched a 17gb one the other day just fine.

If some movie isn't available through RD, you can signal RD to download it and it will be available to you (and others) a bit later as well, but I haven't really needed it so far.

Yes it costs money but not much. You get better speeds and don't need a vpn for debrid serivces

You do pay for it but at €13 for 6 months it is totally worth it. Good and reliable solid streams to give you the most applike experience.