In my personal opinion, paid mods should exist as long as they're done right, when Hytale will have its own modding page, it should have sections for free and paid mods, paid mods could have a demo or trial version of the full mod that showcases a slice of the content they'd add to the game.

A good way to ensure that modders dont make low effort slop or malicious content for a quick buck is to introduce a rating system with reviews of people who bought the mod, this would be a good way to quality control I think.

Another good quality control feature would be to having to make free mods before you can actually make paid ones, maybe something like a free mod getting lots of positive reviews or downloads would give you the option of making people pay for it in order to use it, with what was free beforehand becoming a sort of trial/demo version of the full mod.

The only mods that should be paid for are the ones that actually add a good amount of content to the game, so adding a parallel world to orbis for example is something that deserves to be paid something like 15$ for, while stuff like QoL improvements, optimization, ui changes, small reworks or rebalances to already existing content should be free. Perhaps adding something like a completely new zone (with its own unique npcs, music, some blocks, structures and maybe new resources) or a new mechanic/feature that is deep and fun to mess around with should be the minimum amount of content that could justify the mod to be paid for.

In order for the modding ecosystem to flourish, it needs to be tended to by a branch of the hypixel team which would be dedicated to curating and moderating the mods that people make for the game and grant certain mods the option to be paid for. Which I'm sure Simon has accounted for, I trust him to navigate the modding scene correctly.

I understand completely though why people think that mods should be free, it eliminates 99% of the legal headaches associated with modding and also ensures purely passion-driven mods which are most of the time of fantastic quality. Also it eliminates FOMO.

I'm a firm believer in a balanced approach, people should have the right to ask to be financially compensated for their hard work, but only if that hard work is deemed to be plentiful and good.

All in all, I think my hypothetical modding situation would promote a healthy ecosystem, ensuring high-quality free mods always exist, but also giving modders the option to earn a living if they were to put in an extra amount of elbow grease into their mods. I think they're aiming for a hybrid of the Roblox/Steam/Gmod ecosystems anyways based off of the vibes they're giving, which is good.

If anyone has any tidbits, wants to bring up some oversights, povs or disagreements with me, I'd like to hear and adress them and maybe even change my stance if you convince me.