> They want to force users to register before viewing any articles, but they also want Google to index these same articles (and a forced registration would prevent that). Google wants the same thing (to index the pages), but seeks to avoid special exceptions in its algorithm (e.g., maintaining a whitelist of sites who are allowed to cloak).

Even if the cloaked-paywall-articles get indexed, couldn't that same fact - that they are behind a paywall and not easily accessible - be interpreted that they offer lower quality search results and thus should be listed further down the organic search result list?