I had a pro account until it expired when I was jobless. I am planning o renew it in a couple of months.

Flickr is worth it I think if you have other friends who use Flickr.You know they are occasionally logging on and seeing your updates and likewise it's fun to see your friends photos when you do. Also with tagging, other people might find your pictures when they do a search for something. For example if I am going on a trips some where, I often search Flickr for the name of the city to see what it looks like (or to see how much snow is on the ground--weather reports don't tell you that). Perhaps Picasa has all of these features... I don't know.

Also, maybe I'm just speaking as the sister of a software designer here, but... what's wrong with paying for technology that you like? I know there are free alternatives, but if you are using a service enough to need the souped up version, I think that means you should pay for it. And $25 is really not that much for a year. So I say DO IT! :)