A contract is only as good as both parties participate in good faith, or as it is enforceable.
I'm comfortable with taking on the risk of not fulfilling my end of something like a gym contract, provided the mechanism to remove third parties like payment processors.
Gyms are notorious shysters who made it difficult to cancel your membership, even when you have the right. Don't blame the consumers for this bullshit. Do as many chargebacks as you can.
Don't sign an agreement to do something you don't want to do. It's as simple as that.
It's not "blaming the consumers" for expecting people to follow the terms of contracts they sign. I never had a Gold's Gym membership for exactly this reason - their cancellation terms were onerous, I wasn't interested in complying, so I never signed and never gave them any money.
If you say "well, I don't want to do that, but I'm just going to sign this anyway then do a chargeback because that's easier" them yes, you deserve to be blamed, you deserve to be shamed, and you should have to pay the cancellation fees, early termination fees, whatever.
Bullshit rules are bullshit rules, the fact that something is technically legal doesn't make it morally justifiable. The default assumption of any consumer in a high trust society is that they are going to receive a fair service for the price they pay.
