I feel that they prefer to have 'select' readers to which they can sell (they or their advertisers) far more than the $35 per month. Right now they got (guess)

I feel that they prefer to have 'select' readers to which they can sell (they or their advertisers) far more than the $35 per month. Right now they got (guess) 20m(?) readers per day, and they know nothing about majority of them. With this, they cut our all the slackers/freeloaders (such as myself) and they get to focus on the 5m? 1m? 500k? To which they know are not freeloaders and they can go on to sell other services. Edit: this is my interpretation of this move, a nice way to create the sweet spot on the pricing structure, and increase vertical sales.