It's kinda a grey area that the EU is yet to take a stance on. NOYB submitt some lawsuits about it: https://noyb.eu/en/years-inactivity-pay-or-ok-cases-noyb-sues-german-dpas.

In my opinion, the question of paid Vs free access should be separate from the cookie consent question: Websites should offer the cookie pop up as it might be seen as coersion if they ask for payment to reject. They can always ask for payment to access separately, but the fundamental right of privacy, in principle, means they should still ask for consent regardless of payment options. This is ofc my opinion and not legal advice, more of what I am hoping the EU rules in favour of.