You expose valid concerns and go beyond proposing possible solutions.
There is probably a more complicated issue here, about difference between media agencies, and authors as content creators.
At least, what you do is the positive and creative way to approach the problem. Probably a browser extension is not going to ruin the industry but
is perpetuating that wrong mindset about how everything in internet must be free. A publishing model close to the vision you refer is the magazine subscription. Once we talk about the newspapers model, solutions turn into a challenge.
