> Make submitters pay

Asking people to pay to submit bugs would start a firestorm of internet drama about asking people to do free work for the company and pay for the privilege. It doesn’t matter if the program actually paid out.

If they got even one report closed incorrectly we would never hear the end of it.

Honestly, depending on the repo, I would pay a reasonable fee to get issues or PRs I open seen. No different than paying a fee to add a new game to Steam - raises the barrier to entry and prevents a lot of garbage from entering the fray.

I see that as an absolute win. Free publicity and all that jazz. Plus idiots with their fake submissions of bugs will either bleed money or gtfo from my repo.