It's all good feedback and I knew there would be flaws. Would be good to see if something like this could be implemented in some way shape or form. A report functionality would be needed for people absuing the system (and there will definitely be some!)
Maybe as a reward outside of montary value could be exposure opportunities for all people who have earned particular badges (like a reward based on loyalty). In October, all users who have the "entered 5 game jams" badge can recommend a game for the homepage. Probably needs to exclude their own titles to make it supportive to all community members
Not sure how we could make this all work, we would most likely need support from Itch to get something like this running.