I totally understand this. But I feel like there are better ways to monetize work than this.

I absolutely respect modders that link sites like patreon or buymeacoffee and I have previously given money to modders who's mods I enjoyed (because they deserve it).

Modding should work as a community effort. By paywalling a mod or tool, you are separating the community into people that can throw out money every day and the ones that can't.

I probably see it this way because I come from the modding community around the Bethesda games, where it is forbidden to paywall mods.

In the end, I agree with you that People that put in a lot of work into great modifications deserve to get payed. But they should ask, not force the users to pay.