As someone in the USA, yes. I mostly use discord to message friends and sometimes Instagram if I have to (which is just as bad as Whatsapp but everyone uses it)
I rarely use SMS anymore unless both folk have RCS chat enabled.
Pretty sure they do take money, I've had some websites not work and it showed some sort of message. I forgot exactly what it said but it wasn't an error.
I just use YouTube Music and patch it with ReVanced for no ads. I used to download all my music too but it became too much hassle and I didn't have time for it anymore. My music taste is also quite obscure so its hard to find high quality audio files for it. I still download my favorite songs for when I lose service though.
I do this as well...