I would argue that we have already paid to consume all this content. Time is our most valuable asset and the form that most of the content is in requires us to be full engaged with our time and read a lot of it. One YouTube if it is mainly audio that I'm listening to I can put it on 1.5 or 1.75 chipmunk mode and do a few other things while I'm listening to it.
Also most of us that have been around have at some point powered up a considerable amount at some point which depending on the timing may or may not have made sense compared to other cryptos or other opportunities.
That being said what has been created here is pretty amazing and the premise that additional types of content and games can be added is huge.
Outside of that I personally have never paid for someone's Patreon and I'm not subscribed to OnlySimps girls or something.
Then comes the question if we have all bought into a club with our time and resources and my contribution is various content that I post here some of which this is the primary spot I posted it and other content I have posted it on YouTube and then am able to blow it out to HIVE, STEEM, and Blurt via DTube.
So we all have STATUS in this CLUB in our corner of the Internet. The entry fee has already been paid; some paid their Entry Fee / Cover with their time, some have paid with their looks, some have paid with their connections, some have paid with their money, some have paid with their knowledge.
The business model simply wasn't setup to have the same type of pay wall as we have seen with other platforms but we have paid for the content in my opinion.
Someone could make a case that a person without an account could swoop in and gain all this knowledge with ZERO value transfer to those contributing to this ecosystem.....
That is the main flaw in this system that other successful platforms have effectively closed off one way or another. The easiest way to cut off the leak is to have ads with revenue sharing so those who visit without an account are contributing to the ad revenue gained or the other way to partially force them into the ecosystem is it starts a timer and after 30 seconds gives an annoying thing that pops up and wants them to create an account for free. That way they are a captured lead if they want to engage in our community. If we capture some of the lost value then the ecosystem is more efficient in my opinion