Bethesda's goal, as usual, is rent-seeking. They can't penetrate more markets, so they need to make new ones, and what better way to do this then to hire what amounts to contractors doing gig work. They don't even have to pay them except in commission, which is a really scummy thing to do.

Some people see this as a way for mod-makers to make money, but mod-makers already have those! Every mod I've seen and every modder I've talked to has a donation link you can send money to, and the ones who didn't had organizations and charities you could send your money to instead.

Just feels like a nightmare for the devs too. If you push out an update that breaks a mod are you required to fix it?

Well, Minecraft marketplace for example shows that paid mods can work and be accepted by customers.

I am not a fan of paid mods but there are examples for it working.

Almost every mod out there is addressing some (real or perceived) deficiency in the base game

Emphasis on "perceived". In my experience, the vast majority of mods are for things that I would never have asked for or expected from the developer.

Like Thomas the Tank Engine being everywhere. Or the other day I visited a friend and he was playing Civ 6 as Luigi from Mario. Or adding guns to Skyrim. Or adding tons of sexual content.

Should that content just not exist (licensing issues aside)? While I'm grateful to the noble people making and giving away mods for free, if I could start a decent side gig with it I might start making mods myself.

I can't imagine myself ever buying a mod, but it seems like opening the platform up to allow creators to monetize is better than closing the platform entirely, or relying on the generosity of a few enthusiasts. Seems like this closes a gap on the spectrum from making your own indie game, getting a job as a developer, or using some DIY creator like Dreams.

They gotta figure it out fast before they release that Starfield mod kit.

if you want i can tell you if youve missed anything in the 10 years itll take to release

As soon as you started, I knew you were going to mention roblox. I wish they would release an adult version with a different aesthetic, SO BAD. I like LUA, but I will admit they're pretty predatory with their payments.

If you want a gig like that, costume clothing, furniture, wallpaper and flooring for Sims 4. While there is somewhat of a community thing and the TOS about only having paid early access of a reasonable time, a lot of creatures don't, and big chunks of the community will bend over backwards to defend it. So if you put out some paid stuff a lot of people will pay for it. If you don't reales it for free after some time, big parts of the community will be mad at you, but many creators don't follow that code and you can choose between putting up with it or just release it for free after sometime frame you are comfortable with, community stand is a month but ones again a lot of people don't follow that and have lots of people buying their stuff.

And also if you just put out relatively good stuff, you will get a huge bonus over other people, even if you are paid only or have longer than community standard times. Because a lot of Sims 4 cc (in the Sims community moded assets are called cc while just mod/mods means gameplay mods) is really bad, with chep asset flips, theft and just really badly looking and functioning stuff and that includes quite a lot of the paid only scene. So you know the bar ain't that high.

If you want a in game or developer official option, keep an eye on the upcoming Project Rene it's the next sims game / sims spin off and while it is not confirmed to have paid cc and mods, there is a high likely hood of it.

But do they need to for the copyright case? Aren't most pages on internet, like "Here is where you can sent us a DCMA request, we will take it down after checking it".

Then they don't need to vet it until there is a request, still that is work not gonna lie but they don't have to check every single upload stuff, plus they probably would have a report system or similar if the issue isn't copyright but idk that somebody uploaded something illegal somehow.

Of course maybe I am missing something and there is some laws that require active monitoring of each uploaded stuff.

The perverse incentives alone can be enough to ruin the whole modding scene for the game

As long as they don't take free mods away I'm fine with it.

This is where it starts.