The way I play music, Tidal's interface (aside from being slapped with a rap opening screen) is fine. I search for the artist I want, I tap the "Albums" underneath the artist, and the albums are listed there for my choosing. Simple and direct. That is pretty much how I use JRiver, in fact. Find artist, find album, click Play. Done. Don't care for the grey on black interface, but I'm not subscribing to look at it--I'm subscribing to listen.
As for the cost of lossless Tidal...what's a new CD cost these days? For the cost of less than two new CDs, I can listen to
unlimited albums I don't own for $20. A steal, if you ask me. If Tidal shutters and another streaming company can get me lossless at the same price, I'd be perfectly happy. It's a great, inexpensive supplement to what I own already. Their selection isn't the greatest, but none of them properly cover what I listen to anyway.
The rap thing for me is a minor annoyance, but to some of the snobby audiophiles out there, it is beneath them to see a rap artist on a service they want to use. For a site that is pushing the flailing MQA format, it's a screwy way of putting a good impression on everyone who is interested in what they offer.
If I want background music and I'm busy, it's usually one of my custom-trained Pandora stations (which I have tweaked for several years), or a stream via the TuneIn Radio app. I'll occasionally queue up a few albums but if I'm busy and can't tend to things easily, endless music is a better bet. I used to do that even back when FM radio was still listenable (locally, at least). I could put one of our good stations on and run it for hours in the background. But in times I am sitting down and can control the player (working at the computer, listening during the evenings, etc.), it's always album listening, largely from my server, but occasionally lossless Tidal for albums I don't have.