Yes, the thought crossed my mind too... But then I tried a private window and it opened, so maybe the other suggestion that the cookies are very long lived is right.

I clean my cookies after every session online and had the same problem, so maybe the limit really is 0 but the dev never actually considered people using private windows? Like you could bypass NYT paywalled by disabling Java Script?

Nowadays platforms seem to track IP addresses and other signals to grant limits. Using a VPN works.