Agree. A quicker if not elegant alternative is to cancel the page load after the article appears. Typically works for any site that's using JS to hide/erase content already served.
It works for most paywalls, NY Times being one I remember, so it is handy beyond one article.
Likely there are a bazzillion reasons you can't optimise the current browser to turn off JS, and what are the chances anyone has Opera, and would find running it in JS off mode problematic?
YMMV, but I think it is a lot easier to install a browser as a cheap, easy, JS free paywall buster than the alternatives.