I don't think he 'follows the money' so to speak, I think he's gotten further and further divorced from reality and the day-to-day operations of his company. Valvecouldhave done this properly - instead it is an abortion.
Well going by the steam store, some of the new top 5 star rated mods are
Keep your money to yourself
Steam menu and workshop image replacer (Explotation)
Immersive dirt mound of Skyrim
Don't see any 5 star paid mods.
This is kind of why I think this stuff will sort itself out. A majority of players are not going to pay for mods if forced to, even mods that some feel are vital to enjoy the game. You would think most (not all) mod authors would see how much bad press this created and how much little in return they are getting and decide it's not worth it. What's the point of making a mod if no one is using it because it's behind a paywall?
That's because people forget that Gabeisa corporate business man. He's been put up on a pedestal over the years for reviving PC gaming and doing a lot of pro-consumer things, but let's be honest, the bulk of that was driven by a desire to run a company and make money. That's completely in line with his philosophy of "money drives how the community steers work". Money drove him to do some fantastic things, things which gave him a ton of notoriety, therefore putting the money carrot in front of modders will do the same for them. In a way, it is sort of noble to look at this as Gabe wanting to give others the same opportunities he has, and perhaps that would be more the case if this wasn't implemented in such a shoddy way.
People might argue that as free mods are, well,freethat they've been released from copyright. They'd bewrong, but it's definitely an argument they'd use.
