@samsethi @ericpp @mikeneumann
You're asking this question amongst a group of people that have all volunteered to get a wallet and pay, so yes, while Podcasts remain free (which they all are) people will feel the need to get a wallet and pay if it's a podcast they're passionate enough to support.
It's coming across that you would like to see a model similar to Medium or Substack for audio, which Truefans could totally become, but then it ceases to be podcasting. RSS is the open internet.