I didn't say that content should cost $3 to stop spam. My point was clearly that not enough people aren't even willing to pay that. That price was in reference to what people value. If people value fun web content that's not currently being served to them, they should pay something for it. The vast majority of people simply won't, even if they're spending 1/5 their paycheck on Starbucks. If you think I wouldn't pay for HN if I had no other choice, you'd be mistaken.

But if no one is willing to spend hundreds a year for web content that is not dominated by spam, ads, bots, etc., then spam, ads, and bots is what they will get.

How does spam make money if it isn't advertising anything, and even if it is who's paying for

"The free interaction is great, but I love the best casino games on onlineslots.fun, amazing ever and I always love win cold hard cash 100% with no credit card sign up trial. Payday loans online."

to be spammed on every old phpBB/SMF forum or article comment section crawled on the web?

The lesson of Apple, if there is one, is that you can get at least 70% of your potential margins from 10% of people.

The web has become all about pandering. But there are people finding success through cultivating instead of pandering. (I don't know if many Patreon users fit this description, but I'm sure that population is > 0)