I hate these overly naive intros as if they are the victim of something. You need money and you think that a subscription model fits the best like for 90% of your competitors. You did not look around to find some magic way to monetize you sold your product for cheap to onboard more users and are now either running out of money or you hit the tipping point and MAUs for subscription. Painting everyone in bad light but doing the same is dishonest and is setting yourself up for failure. I give them 3 months until the first dark pattern starts to appear on their canceling page.
When I got to a site and it says 'open your free account to read the rest' I add it to my blacklist. There's so much good stuff to read online that doesn't require a password. More than a lifetime of it, most of it already vetted by time.