Thats correct. Almost all paid relays are implemented like this as NIP-42 isn’t widely available so pay-to-read isn’t practical.
Free to read, paid to write. You can connect to the relay but your events will be rejected.
Discussion
Pay-to-read could definitely have it's place, moving forward.
Absolutely! I already have ideas and can’t wait to play with NIP-42. Unfortunately virtually no client supports it (I believe gossip does in master branch but haven’t tried yet).
