They do work. Someone made a demo and it's the first time I ever paid to read an article. It was like $0.25 USD worth of BTC. Paid over lightning with a qr code that was generated and the article instantly unlocked. I wish I could remember who or where I saw it, but someone has made one. It exists, and itwass magical to use. I would pay for a lot more content if it was always that easy.
Discussion
Blog posts and JPGs can't have market prices. What stops me from paying the 25 cents once, taking a screenshot, and releasing it for everyone for free? 
https://dergigi.com/2022/12/18/a-vision-for-a-value-enabled-web/
"It doesn't make sense to charge for access to code or content, because it's not that too many people are consuming the good itself. It's the production—not consumption—of [content] that suffers from too much demand."
- Nadia Eghbal
Nothing stops you, but nothing stops you now. People could do that with the smbc comics. But the websites could have a "pay to remove ads" option.
Also, if there is a link to the article, there will be some amount of people who will pay the lightning invoice, if only to support the creator.