Does the average person here actually have a NYT subscription? Their paywalls are awful and I’m not sure why they end up here.
I'm not sure what kind of answer you expect, unless there happens to be someone on HN who has already surveyed the readership of HN to know their subscription habits.
If you are actually polling, then I'll answer that yes, I do have a subscription. Also, I have never submitted a link.
Also at $3 per month it's well worth it - and least for me.
:P
Sometimes the trick is to tell Safari to always use reader mode for this domain, and then it kicks in before the JavaScript messes with the content
Often, top level comments aren't even really about anything in the article. The article reminds the commentator of some tangent and they comment on that tangent. That top level comment and its comment subthread are in effect a separate article and its comments.
It's often these tangents that make HN comment threads worth reading.
Teams responsible for backlinks would post on established social media in a very transparent way (from official accounts, etc.)
Besides everyone here has JS disabled, four ad blockers installed and uses a text-based browser. If I personally made the call they would never have employees (or paid contractors) post here of all places.