SomethingAwful forums had a $10 signup fee 20 years ago, so this wouldn't be a groundbreaking development. As it is, there are private paid Discord channels aplenty.

Musk is talking about paywalls to deter bots, that's it. You've appended positive externalities to this, but I haven't heard him say anything about not monetizing the "user as product" business model.

It's been nearly a year after the paid tiers were set up. Realistically do you think New Twitter is going to last long enough to set the example you're hoping for?