No, those are not the only options. But the money has to come from somewhere. > And sharing low-to-medium effort content like articles for free purely out of p

No, those are not the only options. But the money has to come from somewhere. > And sharing low-to-medium effort content like articles for free purely out of passion without any expectation of financial gain has been a part of internet culture for a long time, Where? Sites like Wordpress or Medium are ad-driven. Or you have to create your own site, which means paying for hosting.