I bought it a very long time ago because pop ups piss me off. I figured the programs I use all the time the least i could do is help support them.And winrar has never failed me so I had no issues buying it.
I always used Universal Extractor. You can extract anything, even .exe files. I used to extract certain applications like Itunes so I could avoid installing it's update utility and Bonjour. Of course it does .rar and lots of others.
Also good for making sure the .exe isn't also installing some BS you don't want.
The last time I tried winzip it was like a huge suite with big ass icons all shiny and colorful. Even the titlebar was different. Of course you know something like that is not gonna be good.
Also, I've heard the name zip mixed up with spyware stuff, I don't trust them that much...
This.I don't use proprietary software when there's good libre choices. Been using 7Zip forever. rars are antisocial.
I actually bought a WinZip license. But that was many, many years ago, before they started doing this. I haven't used it in a long time.You could compare that with Winzip where you would have to buy a new license almost every year to stay current.
I've never bought winrar, or even used it much. Back in the day it was Winzip. Then I discovered 7zip which is free/open source and never looked back.
Now that I'm in Linux there is gzip, and various GUI utilities.