“Some in attendance may be naive enough to think that events just put themselves on, and that organizers, vendors, artists, etc., just show up and work in perpetuity purely out of charity. Rational people know that is not how the world works.”

Social interactions do indeed come with reciprocity. However, most informal social interactions, rather than being monetized, exist in such a way where people interacting do so because they enjoy the participation of each other. It's the difference between sex and prostitution. Frankly the commodification of social interaction on the internet has been one of the worst things to happen on it. It turned everyone into whores.

And just like the whore loses the ability to find satisfaction in the intercourse aside from the revenue it generates, so too does the influencer fail to find satisfaction in the interaction. It turns what was a social interaction instead into a presentation, judged on revenue. It's where we get things like Bitcoin podcasts that are one long stream of ads from sponsors themselves who are just leeches and middlemen on the ecosystem. Trezor, Ledger, Bitbox, Ledn, hosted mining. And at least podcasts it makes a bit more sense. There's a friction to the production. The ones done for the love of it are best, and warrant more donations for sure, especially as it is a one-way medium for the most part. But if someone is posting notes for revenue, not only do I not feel compelled to compensate. I feel compelled to mute.

If you asked everyone one Usenet in the 80's what return they expected for their posting I don't think one of them would have known what you were on about. Only in the post Instagram/Onlyfans age does this sort of harlotry seem commonplace.

If you don't want to post without being paid to do so, the solution is simple: don't post. I assure you plenty more will continue to do so.