So many pay walled articles load the entire text of the article before they load the paywall. It should be trivial to create a browser extension that stops the page from loading the paywall and lets you read the article.
Discussion
i remember there was an extension for this already, can't recall what it was tho
You often can do it with ublock origin or even the browser's built-in reader mode.
Not extensions but
12ft.io
archive.is
RemovePaywall.com
All do this
Also, uBlock origin is a great extension overall and has an element zapper that should allow you to remove the overlay easily.
Adblock plus lets you block elements but a lot of times it breaks the page where you can't scroll.