The gain for me would be this game still existing and getting more people. Yes, I love this game. Yes, I love money. The person who didn't join this game due to Real Cash Economy would be at least somewhat lying wouldn't they? That's the draw here, the graphics sucked when I started, it was often buggy and I could tell many horror stories.
I don't see a whole lot of gain in giving 10k PED to run and then be in charge of promoting EU. That sounds a lot like PAYING TO DO WORK. Sure, you get travel expenses covered for conferences, that's a neat bonus. I am pretty sure you could afford to buy your travel if you worked on anything else for 1/2 the time.
I actually PM'd NEVERDIE the day before he bought CND. I talking to him and Rei about investing in CND (my idea). I was trying to get 3 other players to do 1/4 each with me. I never knew you could just call MA and wire them to money to buy it. I assumed you needed 1 million peds ingame to buy it. The next day it was gone; I would hope that my discussion didn't cause him to see it as a good investment. I don't believe it was that; I do believe it worried him into thinking I may buy it before he could. I suppose it could have already all been arrange prior to the auction too (having seen how this election transpired). I'd like to believe NEVERDIE is above that. I do believe he is.
The thing I'm trying to emphasize - he wasn't the only one with the balls. He simply knew a shortcut to achieve the purchase. If an item was in the ingame auction, I didn't suppose you could get PED in 1 day with wire back then. I guess I should have realized that's how fast it gets done for that much money. I was young and foolish then I guess.