I agree, people are arguing in favor of self-moderation, but if we are here is precisely because we like the moderation.

Pay-walled and lower-than-average quality articles promote people judging the article by the title, going to the comments to actually understand the article's content or post without enough information.

Banning NYTimes would increase average comment quality by forcing the link-poster to find an article readable by everyone, possibly higher quality and less click-baity.