> The DOM with most paywalls is destroyed post-render
This has changed for most major sites. Users behind the paywall are served a "truncated" version of the article that never included a full version of it. The days of "press Esc before it finishes loading!" are coming to an end it seems.
The truncated version is still more SEO-friendly than a blank page as it has the headline and partial content.
> whether is due to some devs being lazy or is by intent kept for savvy readers
Neither, the business value isn't there, not enough people use Reader Mode to warrant spending the dev time to close the hole. It's coming soon though, and I'm building it. Sorry!
This has changed for most major sites. Users behind the paywall are served a "truncated" version of the article that never included a full version of it. The days of "press Esc before it finishes loading!" are coming to an end it seems.
The truncated version is still more SEO-friendly than a blank page as it has the headline and partial content.