Exactly. If I really liked Framework laptops and Framework was forced to pay me, I’d refuse and probably stop posting about them. Getting paid for something makes it a job, and a job has expectations. I do hobbies because there’s no expectations, so I can be as consistent or as inconsistent as I want.
For example, I absolutely love Pine64 products, but I would hate Lukasz Erecinski’s job (their official “community manager”) because it takes the fun thing and makes it work, complete with expectations and whatnot. I think someone should get paid for that job, but it shouldn’t be an expectation for prominent members of the community to transition to paid positions.
That said, I wouldn’t say no to some merch as a “thank you,” but I’m not interested in merch as an expectation of future work. Maybe give me new products early to test, but not with the expectation that I’ll post a review or something (I probably will, but again, I don’t want it to be a job).