And this doesn't seem unreasonable, given that you get everything for free or at a very low cost. When you pay for high quality books or periodicals, you get in return much better sourced information written by people who know a lot more about the subject they're writing on than the average journalist or AI language model.
Yes, occasionally one might find high quality contents in blogs, forums, wikis, or open-access periodicals, but far more are locked inside proprietary platforms or behind paywalls that do very little to actually compensate the authors.
Search engines and content platforms are supposed to make it easier to find what you want. But the reality is that it's a lose-lose situation for both the writer and the reader. The writer is forced to give up their contents at a very low price and overpay for ads, while the reader is left with low quality contents that aren't relevant to their needs. But neither can escape the monopoly, who alone profits at everyone else's expense.