"for some reason publishers think it is sensible to charge literally hundreds of times the amount they would get per user per year for their subscription fees."
Handling fees.
That .50 per user per year is amalgamated into a large lump sum.
Those $1 week micropayments end up having 60-75% of their initial value pulled out by banks and other handlers along with added accounting administrative overheads (extra staff, etc) before the website author gets to see the income
It's all a scam either way of course but one of the big thing those 3rd party advertisers use to get their frames into unsuspecting websites is that website publishers no longer have to handle the costs associated with vetting and billing advertisers individually.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
