You might be right, but it's hard to comment without even knowing what their business model is. If, for example, they plan to generate revenue by selling leads

You might be right, but it's hard to comment without even knowing what their business model is. If, for example, they plan to generate revenue by selling leads based on individual's browsing histories, then they need view-only users to have accounts. In that hypothetical case, it wouldn't be terribly surprising if they found the expertsexchange model to be a good fit.