What if a very popular person only chooses to relay messages via 1 relay, that happens to be a paid relay? Only paying “subscribers” can now read his messages, right?

OR, do relays also talk to each other 🤔 and pass on relayed messages?

Even so, those relays would still all have to pay to this one payed relay that has the original messages.

It’s not shadow banning, but an exclusion system to keep the non-paying plebs out.