Not gonna lie, I wasn't really that surprised when it was revealed that the ink we're getting back was bonus ink. Tapas has gotten a huge surge in readers over the past year and Tapas has also gotten acquired by Kakao entertainment. Not sure if it was their parent company that made them change it, but I feel like they thought it would be a good marketing move. Since so many readers got bonus ink from Inksgiving this year, they're kind of forced to read and unlock premium comics (Which are mostly Korean and Chinese translations) in order to use up your ink. Bonus ink also has a fee on it as well I'm pretty sure, meaning Tapas would take something like 30% (an estimate) of it when you use it to unlock a chapter and with how much ink was donated this year, Tapas would've have to give back $9.6k worth of ink, which wouldn't be that profitable. I'm not trying to defend Tapas, just saying why I thought they might've done this
Also for the fees when cashing out, Tapas is actually not that bad
Yes Tapas does take a 30% cut on App Store purchases, but that's because the app stores themselves, (Apple and Google Play) takes a 30% cut.
For web purchases the fees are 15% which I do think is a bit high, but let's just move on from that
Tapas doesn't take any fees at all from the ink you get for watching ads and completing offers, which I really appreciate
Lastly, (Ik I've been writing a lot) Tapas reward rates for their offer walls is actually the highest out of all the other English Translation companies out there. (I read a ton of Manhwas and Manhuas, which is why I know)
For example, Tapas holds many 2x and 1.5x ink doublers throughout the year for their Tapjoy Offerwall and the overall reward rate is higher too (Typically 70% higher than Tappytoon and Lezhin)
For the offer, downloading the app Pluto Tv, Tappytoon rewards you 1000 points (Which works the same as ink, 300 pts to unlock an episode) and Tapas rewards you with 1,700 ink for the same offer.
(Tapas is also holding a 2x ink doubler event for their offerwall right now, so now's a good time to stock up on same ink and for these sort of events, Tapas is paying out of their own pocket to give out the 2x ink, which is really generous of them)
One very last thing, comparing Tapas to other sites, Webtoon, TappyToon, Lezhin, Webcomics, etc, I defintely have to say that Tapas is the best option out of all of them, this includes the staff, the community, the reader experience, the fees, the reward rates, free ink, the creator tools (Scheduling episodes, viewing your stats, etc), and more.
I'm sorry if I was biased here, but I like the Tapas platform and I don't mind reading "Reincarnated in another world as a stylish pair of pants and also being bought at a fantasy world's Old Navy for a reasonable price to be worn by a villainess who is also me" I just like these generic tropes for some reason