No need to go half way: It IS sleazy. The gym utility should be mental: encouraging you to go. But it's the incentive again: the gym owner feels they must squeeze money from any patron they get - and that includes not encouraging them to come. Making the gym more like home and a welcoming place means fewer memberships can be sold. Bad incentives all around.

And so for me the answer has been to work out at home. Finding a routine that requires little equipment and doing THAT right.