Unlike you, I care about about the readers, the authors and the translators.
I advocate freemium because it is good for all parties involved. Paywall will drive 80-90% of readers away.
You wrote that you "want to leech as long as possible without paying anything." Which mean you obviously don't care.
If you care about novels, why don't you go to the Report Translation Mistakes like I do and report some typos you found. So that all readers will benefit. I have reported over 200 typos on that Forum, which improve the reading experience for all readers. What have you done to help readers?