Quality aside, it's the paywall that grinds my gears. Wirecutter articles are essentially long, well-researched ads for the products they (affiliate) link to.

Quality aside, it's the paywall that grinds my gears. Wirecutter articles are essentially long, well-researched ads for the products they (affiliate) link to. I always found these ads useful, at least as a starting point. But putting a paywall in front of the ads rubs me the wrong way, like an unwritten contract was broken.