RE: Does everything have to be free on the hive blockchain?

You can set up beneficiaries to split the earnings. But I think the problem is not within HIVE.
Those who are registered on the blockchain and benefit from the communities and earning mechanisms and services of developers could continue to use the ecosystem for free, because they are the ones who keep it alive.
I think the problem lies outside. All posts can be viewed from the outside, even by those who are not registered and therefore do not participate in the blockchain movement. By not receiving votes, earnings are zero. By reading the posts freely, they benefit from the content but do not participate in the blockchain. It should be established in what percentage of the accesses to the blockchain posts are made from the "outside", from non-registered users.

I think that the HIVE blockchain should be a closed environment, intended for registered users.
Forcing registration to read means onboarding and having more people vote for witnesses, beneficiaries, supporting developers, trading tokens, increasing the value of HIVE itself.