Earlier quoted context omitted.
the main holdup i think is truly effortless and secure, private, and widely accepted micropayments. there's plenty of stuff i'd be willing to pay for if it didn't involve creating yet another account and giving them my credit card info.
How would it work with not creating an account? Low-friction payment methods are here. Apple and Google Pay for example work pretty well. But if I pay for access to something today, how do you know it's me when I return a year later and want access again? A good password manager can make creating an account almost effortless. Maybe that's part of the solution.
Yet another reason why identity verification by default would make the net better. No spam, easy payments, elimination of middle-men for many use cases.