Right, there are many successful projects that don't hold a bounty campaign. They choose other ways to build a large community that can attract investors, for example by holding an IEO on a global exchange top. There are also those who maximize their products and collaborate with other large and trusted companies. However, the bounty campaign is one of the best choices for building a community, as long as it is managed well so that its main goal can be achieved.
Of course, the project prefers to pay to be able to hold IEO on famous exchanges. Still, the cost to be ready to IEO on prominent exchanges is not small, the prices are higher than the costs incurred to create a bounty campaign, but the success of IEO on well-known exchanges is higher compared to holding a bounty campaign.
If the project is solid and promising, and has real potential in the market, they can always go to top exchanges for their IEO like BNB. And sometimes they don't need bounty programs anymore as when for example BNB announced it on their launchpad, people already are waiting for that project. That is, if it is in BNB. But try small to medium exchanges with bad reputation, even if they will announce their upcoming IEO projects, they still find it hard to acquire funds.