Every buisness needs money, no question here. The point is - if you put money first, before your customers (and customers are all users, not necessarily those who pay) you won't survive. I beleive in a simple equation - customer-company-employee. That's how you shall prioritise things. And that works. Always.
And logic "you're not paying - so why shall they care" also works, always - companies that think like that die very soon.
Speaking of evernote - I do beleive they'll clear userbase from those that dont generate revenues. The point is, as mentioned above, that non-paying users are responsible for generating all revenues. It is non-paying that make word of mouth. It is non-paying that convert to paying. Killing non-paying is killing your future.
So I think the only curcumstances that this step can be "justified" is when you plan to sell a company and need nice figures in your repors. Showing nice figures in reports always payback (negatively) afterwards.