Some of them have freeleech on some torrents. TorrentLeech has freeleech on every torrent over a certain size (I think 15 GB) + Box Sets of any size and then you just have to seed for 10 days total, then you can stop without penalty to your ratio. I have never paid money to TorrentLeech for access. I suppose this would change quickly if I was downloading individual episodes of a new show or 10 to 14.99 GB torrents, but that's not my usual usage pattern.

I will say that some of your criticism is correct. I will often avoid using the private tracker to avoid having to seed for 10 days. I can't get to a 1.0 ratio on private trackers, but I can on public ones, but freeleech seeding adds to my ratio with no penalty for downloading. The zero-sum vibe is both real and off-putting.

I currently have a ratio surplus of 34 GB, and it started me with 25 GB. The benefit is if I really want something, it's easy to access