Coming from a development forum like XDA for Android, with a hundred variations of phones and code to be tested many members have taken up putting bounties on certain features to gain interest to specific Hardware or features.
I have a lot of things I'd like to see added to Arma 3 myself, and do not have the skills to make them in any reasonable amount of time. I would be willing to donate money to a person that finishes these, and I'm sure others would as well.
At XDA, a bounty Thread would go up with the requirements for a completed product (Example for Arma: AAVP-7A1, modeled interior, custom model, ect) and the bounty "pot" and individual pledges. The more interest, the more the bounty goes up. High demand, high reward. I think that's what BIS was going for with "Make Arma not War". A bounty for Total Conversions and the like. But individual content is important to the feel as well. I have no problem with this kind of Thread, and money makes the world turn. Others my turn down the money because they like creating, but some may be more motivated to produce content if theres a paycheck at the end of the rainbow.
The spirit is still alive, but it also gives an indicator of what items are in higher demand by the community as well.
Example of a [bOUNTY] Thread : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2728051