While I agree with most of what you just said, I'd like to pick out NPR as a bad example. When I visit a link to NPR from (for example) HN, I first get a demand

While I agree with most of what you just said, I'd like to pick out NPR as a bad example. When I visit a link to NPR from (for example) HN, I first get a demand to hand over the keys to my kingdom, then on refusal I get a passive-aggressive whinge about countries that like to protect their citizens, and then I get thrown a small collection of articles in text - but not the one was interested in. That's not my definition of a good experience.