"Forum" doesn't have to do anything. After all, bitcointalk already has its coin.
Regarding that part about having to buy bitcointalk tokens in order to run bounty/airdrop. if theymos really wants to monetize that too, he can simply charge that in BTC, no need to make another currency. I really don't get this obsession to make token for every single thing there is..
yeah, you have right, forum does not have to do anything, and that is a fact
what could be done is put a governance token, if they want to have community lead forum, but I do not see that as their intentions, maybe they prove me wrong
with all crypto and DAO developments, it does seems that companies will take DAO directions for their governance, especially if they are crypto related
nevertheless, personally, I do not see the need for the forum to go in that direction, it is not fast growing, not crypto related in their business (there is no crypto native stuff on the forum, just discussions about it)