What if the owners/creators/developers take none of the proceeds and its all used to further the altcoin in ways that don't involve paying salaries, etc?
That's how any ICO/crowdfunding should work, developers set milestones to reach, agreed in advance with the escrow and whoever is interested in the project. Funds should be locked and released only at those milestones so the devs won't run with the money after releasing a simple wallet clone.