It's more accurate to say the publication and the author are requiring a login. There's a huge number of authors and publications that have bundled themselves within Medium's $5/month subscription in order to get paid. I own this publication, Better Programming, and it's the money from being in the subscription bundle that allows us to publish consistently. Hacker News is an entrepreneurship community right? But sometimes it feels uncouth to say "I want to get paid for my work." Well, I do. And if Medium thinks a "metered paywall" where there's some try before you buy going on is the most effective way for us all to get paid, then that's fine by me. That's what I'm getting at about the login wall being my choice as the publication.