LOL your funny!
So you think people are just going to give you the space without anything sort of work??
"excessive pop-ups": Create cash that keep the service going.
"posting on forums": People help people. If it saves a host a few min a day by having users reply and solve a support request, then yeah, make em post.
"newsletters": Hosts use these to keep you up to date (note the news part). Updated to services etc. They also make a little cash.
The only people that are going to agree, will be people that expect everything in life for free. You have to EARN everything you want. You EARN it by posting in a forum, clicking the CLOSE button on your site, hitting the delete button in your email client etc.
If your mission is to AVOID all the, as you put them.. "lame" hosts, then use this host...
A PAID HOST!!!
P.S.
This is what hosts are being taken down to. All the above (which you call lame). You have to understand that there is no money in free hosting anymore. So, if you want all the advanced features some of the host offer, yet make/use all the above, you have two options... put up with it or pay for it. If you have a small site, then you don't need any of the features the hosts that make you do the above for (make sense, I donno.. I'm
now).
Go ask somebody on a network where they make you post if they are happy to give the host 5 minutes a day for the wonderful hosting they get in return for free. They may say it sucks, but are happy to post. I also bet a few people even go over the "min" required per week.
You know the story; one persons trash is another persons treasure. A host you may find “lame” may the “da shit” to somebody else.