You're not really representative of the majority of NYT readers. A minuscule number of them even understand what private browsing mode does, and even fewer real

You're not really representative of the majority of NYT readers. A minuscule number of them even understand what private browsing mode does, and even fewer realize how it interacts with the NYT paywall. The paywall is price discrimination. A certain number of users are willing to pay for the NYT site, it's a way to let them do so.