Well since I’ve been mostly in customer service jobs I’d like for people to know that the reps don’t make the rules or decisions. When there is something about a store or service that’s undesirable such as prices then it’s something to bring up to upper management or just let them lose you as a customer. But you can be as nice to the reps as they are to you.
When you buy a research paper, the author doesn’t get any cut from it. The journals are scams, and should be destroyed. Until that happens, try searching on arxiv.org first, usually there are preprints available there. If not, contact the authors. Most of us are happy to share our results. Your local library can also help you get access to those.
These are the more legitimate ways, and then there’s sci-hub. I’ve actually seen internationally renowned researchers open a paper using sci-hub on their laptop lol.