That's also a highly effective mitigation against legitimate users, especially those already disadvantaged everywhere else by a lack of disposable income.
Charging goes well for many online services. Hosted email, hosted VPS, and hosted SaaS are some that come to mind. Apple Store and Google Play charge to host mobile games.
Now they need to subpoena both PyPI and the payment processor. It does slow them down but effectively does nothing to "thwart future subpoenas from the total surveillance state".
An effective mitigation for abuse/spam is to increase its cost. One example is to require payment.