I dunno. I have access to nearly every piece of digital media ever created and I pay no one, and yet, everyone else goes throughout the world and pays oodles on monthly services, all to avoid the “cost” of learning what soulseek is, what mutorrent is.

I guess I didn’t read your final sentence in your OP, and maybe we’re saying the same thing, but this just doesn’t need to matter to most people here-- but yes, it continues as a means to squeeze money from the unresourceful.