"We hold the copyright on a bunch of stuff you'd like to read" has never felt like a compelling sales pitch to me. They and the ACM do a fair job of hiding info

"We hold the copyright on a bunch of stuff you'd like to read" has never felt like a compelling sales pitch to me. They and the ACM do a fair job of hiding information from people who could use it, many of whom don't know it yet, but I don't think that sort of thing should be rewarded. I was almost ready to make the jump and join one of these until I realized how many extra fees I'd incur to read everything I was interested in. IIRC with the ACM it's papers presented at conferences that are extra, but it sounds like IEEE has similar problems. I can see how membership could have some other benefits, but it's hard to justify the expense, and just distasteful to contribute to the academic gatekeeping involved.