Basically, you pay a monthly/yearly fee and then all of the sudden you realize that are certain publications that are Exclusive for 'Gold' members or whatever! what a scam. They took a page from the SaaS business-space.
If there's an interesting story in, say, the Austin local newspaper and I live in Idaho or wherever I am not bothering to subscribe to Austin's local newspaper just to see if the rest of the article is actually interesting. And sure sometimes you get three articles or whatever but even then it's insanity to subscribe.
I only have an iPhone, and like to read news on my computer or tablet which doesn't run iOS. So that's a no-go for me :/
Assuming a higher subscription rate would be prohibitively expensive, then yes, I would prefer no option at all.
Personally I've enjoyed paying for individual movies on Amazon because the selection of free movies on Prime is underwhelming. (e.g. they have all the "C" sci-fi movies)
Cable has done the same thing for decades. Subscription includes a ton of free content, and you can pay more for PPV or on demand new releases.
They're handing out free subscriptions constantly to build the service, but the mixing of subscription content with pay content actively makes me use the trials less and makes me never want to pay for the service.
It's a different service, rentals, smashed into the service I pay for, prime "free" videos. That is what makes it frustrating. I do in fact sometimes end up renting those videos which is why they include them. But it's not a good customer experience by any means.