@Matt: I don't think the football analogy really works though, because of this reason: Are pro footballers playing because the game is fun or because they're getting paid multimillion-dollar contracts?

The problem is that gear is being looked at as the reward here. The gear isn't really the reward! The fun you have while playing through the content is supposed to be the rewarding element of the game. So by that logic, if you're having fun, and having greater gear would enable you to have more fun, people should have avenues to get gear so that they can have MORE FUN.

To use Krotzer's writing analogy: "I spent ten hours creating something and was compensated with X. Another person spent two hours creating something and was also compensated with X." Was the time spent creating something rewarding because you got paid, or because you enjoyed the process of creating something? All the compensation enables you to do is just do things that are necessary, like keep the power on, buy food. Those aren't fun activities, but they're necessary, so we need money to do it. But money it itself isn't really a fun thing. CREATING SOMETHING is a fun thing, and you got to do it for ten hours when the other fool only got two hours.