That Facebook thing was disproven ages ago. There are ways to get around the paywall (using multiple incognito browsers, for example), but I think most people are just reading free stories, of which there are many. All stories from writers in countries where Stripe doesn't operate, for example. All public figures (Barack Obama doesn't paywall his stories). Many people, myself included, don't paywall all their stuff (I don't paywall poetry or fiction under 1k words). I think you're vastly overestimating the number of people who cheat to get "free food." I was a nonpaying writer for the first few months on Medium, and I just stuck to nonmonetized content when I was reading, or bookmarked stories I really wanted to read to include in my next months 3 free. A pay-to-earn model is really gatekeeping and exclusionary, especially since most writers aren't earning $5/month in Medium income to break even.