Honestly I'm in it for the trophy. It's a unique one of a kind ORIGINAL PossiblyAxolotl original. How can you compete with that?

Paid game jams are definitely not a great way to earn money, even if you're really good. I mean, look at some of the games that got submitted to this unpaid jam by single person teams - if there's actual money on the line, you're gonna see stuff on the level of Tears of the Kingdom getting submitted by trained professionals (even discounting the possibility of cheating). I love free jams because there really isn't any competition. I don't begrudge the games in "first place" because we're all just out here making games!