Agreed. Even in my ideal scenario that's still a part that is difficult. My only thought is that that compensation amount is determined before the PR is accepte

Agreed. Even in my ideal scenario that's still a part that is difficult. My only thought is that that compensation amount is determined before the PR is accepted (or maybe even before it's asked for, like a bounty). In [my] ideal scenario it's not the people that are vetted and compensated, but the work itself. A student who comes up with a particularly genius contribution could be compensated as equally as someone who worked in the field for decades and proposed the same contribution. Note: it also requires an environment where work is recorded publicly so that plagiarism is essentially impossible, though that brings it's own challenges.