Medium.com is absolutely rotten for this behaviour.
Not only putting the soft, “sign in to view” but then on some articles requiring a full hard paywall… But you only know this after signing in.
I’m not entirely against charging for well written articles; good writers deserve compensation, but don’t tease me, make me jump through a hoop only to find there’s another much higher hoop sitting beyond it.
Story mode / Infinite lives / invincibility modes.
Difficulty should not be a barrier for entry. I like how Insomniac games like Ratchet and Clank, and to a lesser extent Spiderman, offer a really easy mode for those who just want to blast away or swing around New York.