The last time I started to register I read the terms and they wanted me to bind myself to terms that they could unilaterally alter and still bind me!
I sent them a note and received a nice phone call from a person that assured me they would never do that. Very impressive customer service, but thank you, no.
To be fair, this was probably 10 years ago and they may have a new policy.
I am speculating here, but I suspect it gives them a metric that is in some ways more reliable than just measuring unique IP addresses.
Most likely it is that metric they really want, but if you want to be cynical, they could be selling those addresses without ever sending a single message themselves.
Like the NYTs content, why not register? They need all the help they can get.