Then something changed recently then as I personally never noticed an annoyance on nytimes til recent years after where it seemed any article required paywall.

In addition, there is one important thing that is not being paywalled (yet), the 'news' value of nytimes is still accessible via the headline + summary on the front page.

The moment the guys chasing a buck remove that is the day nytimes dies.

The NYT paywall has gotten far more aggressive in recent years.

I'm pretty confident they won't remove that, it's analogous to the front page of a printed newspaper, which you could always see for free at a news stand without buying a copy.