I see nothing wrong with profit sharing with websites on pages where their link is used
It’s just strange when the law gets involved to carve out weird special cases for special interests.
If site operators don’t want incoming connections to their systems without having record of payment received from a referring party, they can simply deny the request. Hell, put up a big red notice that says “You are not permitted to access this website because the place from whence you came refuses to pay for your access. Please encourage them to do so to help fund our wonderful content!” for all anyone cares.
This is all perfectly negotiable through boring old contract law that has been around forever.