Will this undermine most of what makes IAmA special? Probably. But Reddit leadership has all the funds they need to hire people to perform those extra tasks we formerly undertook as volunteer moderators, and we’d be happy to collaborate with them if they choose to do so.
They can do what communities like /r/cryptocurrency and /r/fortniteBR do and opt-in to Community Points. Mods of the former make a decent killing with their MOON token.
Granted it’s done by milking their users for dollars… but if it’s good enough for reddit the company!