I bought a lifetime license for WWL. I've tried all the others (including Weather Pulse), and they all suck for one reason or another. I've found a couple that are
almost usable, but there has always been something missing, or something wrong (lack of hourly forecast displays, inability to specify the update interval, aggravating bugs, you name it).
As far as The Weather Channel goes, you can keep it. I get as much of my weather info from NOAA because I've found it to be the most trustworthy. (I don't like my nearby WeatherBug station, either. Its temp readings are often wrong by up to 7F! Actually, one time it was off by 33F... Mike knows about that one.

) I guess that may vary by location.
The most important thing to me is author responsiveness. When I find a problem with Weather Pulse (which, given what a piece of shit it is, takes all of 8 seconds or so after installation), my queries go ignored. When I have a problem with WWL, Mike responds rapidly and always addresses the issue.
It's not that "the best apps are free", it's that people are often incredibly biased toward them. Some people--many people--will go through hell just to avoid paying for software. If they have to spend hours editing the configuration of some digital turd with Notepad, then hunt down four dozen solutions to a variety of obscure problems, they'll still rave their fingers off about it. I guess these people put no value on their own time and effort. Most of these people are idiots who wouldn't know a bug if it crawled into their ass and died.