Let's try a different reason for the free burgers: the lettuce company makes money by selling information that's (somehow magically) sent to them from inside my mouth while I am eating the lettuce about how I chew, maybe using certain aspects of my mouth and stomach which allows them to isolate me as an individual.

Given all that, they put effort into requiring that their lettuce makes its way to my mouth with a free burger. Fine, I'll pay for the burger: Big Lettuce is still adamant about getting their tracking lettuce in my body. One has to go to great lengths to find a burger place that doesn't have a deal with such a lettuce-provider. Whatever, I'll just take the stupid lettuce off.

(I agree, it's a weird analogy.)

Anyway, the stakes are different with free food vs. free content, so to the point that one is selfishly undermining the ability for others to get content for free: that decision is not what makes the world worse. If the content is truly worth seeing, it's likely that someone will be inspired to make it as accessible as possible[0], regardless of the lack of potential profit, and other content will become less available. (Maybe I'll sing a different tune when Khan Academy is overrun with ads.)

[0] https://www.khanacademy.org/