Dude I'm super condescending, I know. Sorry if I was coming across insulting which I probably was. But the whole mindset of, we better dodge the paywalls every chance we get, (edit: which, whether it's intended this way or not, might as well translate to) "lol get fucked people who produce the news who are going out of business left and right" irritates me.
I think your mindset of (edit: corrected the quote) "I’ve been having no problem avoiding them for free for decades" and not being interested apparently in looking further into it than that, is harmful. I explained why, probably with more hostility than needed to be there. But I still think it's harmful.
Edit: Made some edits to try to be more fair minded about it