The old adage of the engineer paid to know where to tap an X comes to mind: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/06/tap/?amp=1

Frankly anyone telling you they can measure the value of a line of code without any background knowledge is selling BS.

But I welcome this new BS system as the previous system of managers not so secretly counting total commits and lines added was comically stupid.

Network effect is a hell of a drug

A monthly fee seems idiotic but yes please do it! Please!

That said I think a $5 signup fee on Mastodon or Lemmy that is not refunded if you get banned would seriously help stop bots. They only make pennies per bot and if you make their cost even minimally painful the economics fall apart.