I'd like to say yes, but I really don't think that would work. It changes an organisation where everyone contributes for free to one where a subset of the developers are all chasing after bounties. "Equal access" doesn't mean no resentment. There's going to be competition due to the limited funding, and there will be losers. There will be questions and recrimination over how fair the selection process is (whether true or not). But getting the bounty also means a commitment to providing some deliverables within a defined period, compared to the commitment being imposed primarily due to one's dedication to the project.

Overall, I can see it working for some organisations. But I don't see Debian as one of them.

The Monero cryptocurrency's developers are all funded via the community via bounties. I think it works really well.

https://ccs.getmonero.org/ (new system) https://forum.getmonero.org/22/completed-tasks (old system)