Well they want you to pay obviously, they don't want you to disappear. Setting an expectation that things should be free on the internet is what killed the internet. We all want good things until we have to pay up.
I may or may not be younger than you, that is of no relevance other than a vague appeal to defer to your experience about it.
I find plenty of valuable things on the current internet that wouldn't exist without commercialization, the possibility of a career as an individual YouTuber or streamer, for example.
And I'd like to see them continue and be actually paid for their efforts in a sustainable way instead of pining for a return to "all content is just passion side projects".
Because absolutely nothing about the current internet stops people from posting passionately as a side project.