So, you would prefer individuals who are the highest caliber in their technology specialty, along with the rare combination of also being an excellent writer, t

So, you would prefer individuals who are the highest caliber in their technology specialty, along with the rare combination of also being an excellent writer, to take the time to write an article for you for free rather than getting paid. If they made it in book form, would that be ok, or is paying for learning material just not acceptable? Creators like to get paid, and if they are clicking that checkbox to make it so they get paid, there is a good chance that they wouldn't bother making that content for you if they weren't getting paid. Then the world would be worse off for the lack of their contribution. Medium is free for all articles in which the author chooses to give it to you for free. This is the same for news, or youtube, or music. Some stuff creators will give you for free just for the satisfaction of you enjoying their work, but usually the output in those cases are small, or just monetized in other ways. Regardless of if you are paying for a subscription or just voting up someone's question on StackOverflow, providing a positive incentive for creators to go on creating is essential if you want to have quality content and a steady stream of it. There is no such thing as a free lunch.