I've read some very good contemporary works that have been put up on the internet for all to read. Some of my favorite short stories are original works published on a fanfic site.
I am convinced that if copyright disappeared stories would still continue to be written by those who wish to share their stories with the masses and many of them would continue to be very good although I expect that the lack of professional editing would spoil many an otherwise promising work. I'm not sure that as many non-fiction book length works would be produced and I am sure that paper editions of contemporary works would be greatly decreased.
However this does not mean that I wish copyright to disappear completely. There are very good reasons for an author to automatically have copyright even if they choose to freely distribute their work (see
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/).
Also just because some people who can write well are willing to make at least some of their work available for free doesn't mean every good author would or should have to.
The current setup where works can be professionally published, privately published or even freely distributed seems to me to be a pretty good one.