You shouldn't be looking at this as paid mods, you should be looking at this as freely outsourcing addons to the game. People will always continue to make free mods, and people won't pay for something they don't think is worth it. The system should have just been a bit fairer and a bit better managed. How are "paid mods"…
I don't really understand the whole "modding is not a job" thing. Why couldn't it be ? Wacky free mods (anything from joke models to ripped models ported over) can very well coexist with well crafted original content released for free or for a fee. Valve certainly made many mistakes in this early attempt and it is…