...devs should get paid somehow for their hard work if they are not paid then they can be easily bought...
Their being paid
is what "buys them" and gives them incentive to actively work against any other group. By the nature of being human, Core devs are financial incentivized to use whatever means "necessary" to perpetuate the myth that Core is the "official" dev team. The only way to truly make it
decentralized is to
defund the Core dev team.
Another thing. Any devs would have Bitcoins already and that incentivised devs to improve the codes in order to improve the value of BTC - that's their reward. Each dev can always ask for donations if they say that the improved codes is done by oneself.