The last part: Absolutely. They got it the wrong way. I mean - okay - they have the right to establish the paywall.

But they are scare off the wrong people: the readers. Why use a service to pay for reading something that the publishers WANT to give me for free? Not enough: Many publishers would pay for it, as it is convenient and absolutely user friendly.

This won't work. Well no, actually it will work - but not as a service that proclaims "show your work to the world for free".