I think you're right. I think _merely_ paying won't deter them. But, if you couple this with banning of accounts that post AI slop, you get:

1) the cost becomes even higher for AI slop factories since they will probably get multiple accounts banned.

2) It prevents influence to accrue to any specific account. This diminishes the incentive for slop, since sufficient success means a ban.

3) It reduces the moderation effort since creating accounts is no longer a sustainable strategy.