I agree, until paying 8ct is seamless to every user and is hassle free, the approach you describe is what I plan to start with too.
How can we work together?! I'd like to get this started on my relay ASAP. As a first step I want to advance login - [client authentication to the relay](https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/141). The relay should give very minimal resources to non-authed clients.