The better novels appear to be going premium. This makes sense, since they are good enough people will pay to read them. I still haven't figured out the cost per word, and compared it to how much buying a book would cost, so I'm not at the point of spending money to buy chapters, but this is due to purely utilitarian concerns, not philosophical ones.
The people translating/writing these novels are putting in the work, and they have an absolute right to charge for their work; as readers, we have an absolute right to decide to purchase their works or not. I am disappointed that I don't get to continue to read for free, but so it goes.