The expectation that everything online must be free has caused a lot of damage. I think the idea of paying money for something and not receiving a tangible good or service is hard to reconcile for some. It’s understandable, to an extent. If you buy a physical newspaper, you can read it when you want, as many times as you want, and the articles will not change between readings. You can give it to someone else or save it for a long time. Digitally, none of this is guaranteed, and on top of that, news orgs are at the mercy of Google or Facebook because of their heavy reliance on social platforms to drive clicks as opposed to just directly distributing the newspaper themselves.
Just a few years ago, the New York Times still offered five free articles a month. I understand if their budget is now too tight to offer that many, but even two free articles a month (or at least being able to pay a small fee per article) would be an improvement over being totally subscription-walled. Many of us can’t afford to subscribe to a publication just to read one or two particular pieces.