Hope I’m not necro’ing a thread here, but I’d like to add my own take to this discussion. I’ve been doing some replit bounties recently (Apparently “top 2%”, whatever that may mean) and I treat it as both an opportunity to try out new concepts and somewhere to earn a little bit more.
I do feel that some of your statistics for reference here may be particularly skewed. As far as I can observe, most bounties undervalue the work required for certain features, a 1k bounty may feel like a lot, but it comes with the expectation of constant communication - for example, many 2/3am meetings to match with the poster’s time. Many of such bounties come with additional requirements, such as deploying to serverless infrastructure, CI/CD, etc. and hence make the time and effort just about right.
I should add that I do very much enjoy the current system and status quo of bounties as it fits within my schedule. Coming back from work, I apply for/work on some bounties which provide some flexibility and enjoyment from the accomplishment.
Just my thoughts on this. 
