I'm under the impression that paying for tickets is not exactly frowned on but isn't the respectable path either. The alternative being to do something awesome at a regional burn and get recruited by an established camp, which comes with free tickets.

I have no idea how common this is. I just know somebody offered free tickets for me and my crew if I joined his camp with my contraption at the big burn.

I like the idea, decommodification being one of the principles and all, but I didn't go because I didn't have time to fix some issues that I deemed critical.