Does anyone pay for those and do you think the web could survive on paid content?

BTW, these aren't "Dark patterns" - they're industry standards - whether we like it or not. Are users interested in preserving independent media or are they mostly fine just getting what facebook and google think they should get?

I think what a lot of people are ignoring is that users support these terrible sites and that the good ones that don't join these patterns eventually just fade to oblivion

web "Surfers" need to change their behaviors just as much as content creators... if not more so - because the industry is just following the what the readers actually do...