The fee is not insurance, the fee is for your time (ect.).
The fee is insurance. The escrow is stating he will replace the funds (insure) if you are the victim of fraud.
If you really believe the fee is for your time, explain why newbies shouldn't be escrows. Their time is just as valuable as yours, they just can't insure it because they don't have the reputation.
Escrowing for yourself, esp if the other person isn't aware it's your alt - is fraud and scammy behavior. Since you and the escrow are the same person, why do you get paid twice for your time?
tl dr: QS asks the lender to pay extra for protection from himself, and doesn't offer any additional protection. There is the scam.
Like I said the escrow fee is factored into the overall price of what is being traded. If one party is paying the escrow fee, then the other will be inclined to to accept a price against their favor.
Furthermore, there are plenty of very highly reputable members who charge above market prices for what they sell, and I can find no reason why those prices are supported other then the fact that their reputation supports that their trading partner is not going to get scammed.
I have also been given the argument a number of times by reputable members that I should accept a less favorable price for an item because their reputation supports they will follow through on the trade and that dealing with them would not be a waste of time. The price difference in these cases would almost always be greater then the escrow fee if escrow were to be used. I have made similar arguments to others as well. In other words, if someone was doing a direct trade with QS, they would receive an inferior price verses trading with QS-alt and using QS as escrow.