Disregarding a lot of the other shade thrown at NYT in this comment section - forcing people into a phone call is definitely a dark user pattern. You're making

Disregarding a lot of the other shade thrown at NYT in this comment section - forcing people into a phone call is definitely a dark user pattern. You're making it trivial for people to start giving you money while raising the barrier for them to stop giving you money - that's a trap that'll retain some subscriptions for no reason other than low effort and super slimy.