After all, each and every one of us has the following choice: either to read or not to read. As it was discussed lengthly throughout this post, a business needs to generate a black balance, not a red one (i.e generate enough income to be sustainable).
Each one of us can easily agree that for free users (and I am one of them) the sudden apparition of a pay-wall is not well seen and would rather be left with the ads for skipping free chapters.
I haven't seen any intervention from the moderators yet nor in the Book of Answers regarding the stance of QI, though I can infer that no matter what happens, they already have their visions for the International branch. What we are doing, being at each other throat is useless. It just generates frustration for both parties without a solution.
Unless there is a proof that QI listens to what happens in this forum and care about the concern of the freemium users, their objective stays the same, generate revenue.
So it came down to the same choice, either reading or not the novels who went under that new management.