The Devs need to get paid in USD or BTC.
Devs usually get paid in the shitcoin they are producing so not only do they have to dump it to get real money to live on, they have to sing its praises regardless whether they believe in it or not.
We have all had jobs involved in products or services that we have no real faith in but, we have to keep quiet about it all because we need to make a living.
You're WRONG! This is my entire concept for an altcoin from the start. If people involved in coin development are paid with the coin itself, then you have a team. If you pay them with BTC (for example), you have mercenaries. There are a lot of people making money from shitcoins (developing, graphics, signatures, promotions, giveaways etc...) and those are the people who mostly doesn't care about its future as long they are getting paid. In my view, an altcoin (or whatever asset/token is) should be like a company in which you have a specific share. People forgot what cryptocurrencies are. If this is a fiat-digital currencies war, then why one should demand getting paid in fiat (because BTC can be considered as a fiat - it's easiest to convert it to fiat)? I'll give you an example with FAILCoin. Currently we are a team with people from Bulgaria (2), England (2), Netherlands, Indonesia, South Korea, India, Russia, Cyprus, Thailand, France and recently - Slovenia(2).
NO ONE have received a single satoshi for what he's done and what he's about to do in future, when our hard fork is ready. And do you know what else? If I decide to travel to (you name one of these countries), I'll be accepted as a guest and a friend. Same goes to everyone else in the team. THAT is how it has to be done!