> My ideal situation would be that mods and content creators get paid from the reddit awards
I've been working on a community platform/Reddit alternative that has a business model exactly like this.
It's like a Reddit/Discord/Patreon hybrid taking the best features of each platform and combining them under one umbrella. One key aspect is we have non-intrusive monetization methods baked into each community where the revenue primarily goes to the community owners. The monetization stuff is completely optional and disabled by default, however it feels like the people curating the communities should have the option to be rewarded for the work that they do.