Ok. Fine. I forgot about the long-distance phone charges
But I think some of the things I wrote were right in principle. My fax machine doesn't require an IP service, but my 5 Mbps modem does. If I wanted to transfer data to a neighbor at 5 Mbps I couldn't do it without an IP. Or maybe I could, but it just wouldn't be easy.
And I stand by my assertion that people pay to connect to the internet mostly for the free content. It's absurd to say otherwise.