I like start.me. It isn’t something to download but it’s a web page. The free service is a great start. I’ve been using it for years now

I recently found ground.news. it is an interesting news aggregator sight in that it combined multiple sources for each story. It doesn’t really answer some of your needs but for each story it shows you which sources are pay-walled and which ones aren’t.

I like #newsblur too. I have paid for it for years now (though it is free).

What I like best about it is that it caches the text and images of the site so I don’t get all the ads etc.

Every year or so I go around looking at others but always go back.