It's a brave new world and it is called crowd sourcing and it's coming to a profession near you soon (if it hasn't already), the good people embrace the challenge, adapt and even use it to their own advantage. It is an important and valid sourcing strategy for any and every business IMHO.

Having said that this particular instance comes across as a little comp for a novelty item to me, treat it like a novelty and enter or don't enter, the power is with you and don't forget to add your age to the entry

I work in the technology industry as a CDO so don't talk to me about change! Oh wait...I mean yes; please do talk to me about change.

I think everyone that works for a living (jumped through hoops to become SMEs etc) gets what you (and the other creatives) are saying, it is just that this is happening to everyone and in every industry, we just aren't going on and on about it, turning a simple "send your pics in for a pizza" thread (if you want to) into a thread all about us. This is a part of adult/working life these days, adopt and rise to the challenge (which I would argue you personally have).

Ironically (in a crowd sourcing way), during your early days as a pinball designer, you were happy to give free design advice to JJP for the Hobbit playfield (raising your brand) but are unhappy if Domino ask for it with a smashing pizza prize as reward for any effort. Up and coming designers would/should jump at the chance to add a coup like this to their portfolios (brand) and that is the real threat, which we all have, new young talent willing to work for much less than us family guys charge, simple supply and demand. Quality, just like cream, always rises to the top.

If I had a $ for every time someone said "how much - how hard is it to plug in a server?" I'd be a gigillionaire.

Give me $100 and I'll tell you the answer for nothing

Have you ever responded to a tender (RFI/RFP/Bid) for business, sunk costs a-plenty for whatever risk/reward?

If I was "creative" and I wanted to respond to this, I would submit a partial design, just enough to say "Yeah you like that, want the whole sh*t show..let's talk and eat at the same time!", but that's just me.