Hacker News Reader

You are leaving out the option of just licensing the patent. If you are lucky they will license it to you for free.

That's still a restraint on innovation. Money going to licensing can't be spent on salaries.

If we assume free licensing then you might as well cut out the middle man and abolish patents.

Can the license holder set any price they want? Essentially blocking access with an absurdly high paywall? Or is there some kind of standard?

Yes, or they can refuse to license it to you at all.