My thoughts, too.

For example, I spent $100 for an annual subscription to the (loathsome) National Review. Now, assuming that it had, say, five columnists I considered worth following (yeah, just go with it here), I would like to spread that around to assemble, and compensate, my own virtual stable of commentators, including Substack posters, that I thought were truly worth reading and supporting.

For me, I could probably do about $200/yr, spread around over 5-10 writers. (Other people's mileage may vary.) That's about the cost of two typical online publications, but certainly fewer writers than two would offer up. But given the Substack subscription rates I've been seeing, $200 would cover less than 5.