Alternatively, you can contact/ask the people who wrote the paper if they can send you a copy. Usually they’ll gladly send it to you for free. I don’t believe they get any of the profit from the journal subscriptions/purchases. So they have no incentive to withhold it from anyone.

anything’s funny if you’re high enough

I do not really use journals for my daily work. But usually I have a quarterly project I tackle and then search if someone in the industry has researched the issue or something similar. So you usually get to read the abstract or executive summary and then have the option to get access.

My employer/company usually after I send motivational letter does pay. I also have a reoccurring yearly subscription to two professional bodies and their journals, even the one I specialise makes their research available for free and the other one usually has a month or so delay before it is free and available, usually to edit it and make it look nice.

But professional organisations and journals also need to be funded, and like my industry (mining) really invests in them because the knowledge from them benefits them. The journals do not fully guarantee quality papers, sometimes a malicious actor slips through and is usually redacted, but usually journals live on their brand of producing quality papers that can be used by the industry to improve it overall. And for this they do need a bit of resources.

But I also sympathize with OP because certain journals can make their barrier to entry prohibitive. If Nature Journal in this instance chooses to become a for profit entity I can see how this might stifle future progress especially for smaller players in the industry where cost margins are extremely tight and basically gives unfettered access to the giants to gain an edge.

Sci hub baby