The model exists because people make it exists. Consumers, adults, children, teens. They all donate.

It's very true, donating for perks is a plague in most servers, for example, faction servers that give you fly (What's up with that...really?) But there are servers like many, even top servers, that have balanced rewards.

The EULA isn't enforced. That simple. Minecraft is a huge game, because it has a huge market, with people putting their full potential in games. I'm not going to lie, I'm one of the server owners that do have perks for donators, aside from aesthetics. The cost of my upkeep? $200/mo + Custom Developer charges, web-developer charges, animators, advertising, etc.

It all plays into it. Prison servers exist because developers put their work into creating it. Most plugins are premium plugins now, and server owners have to pay money to install the servers. Not only that, but it's a ton of time. You're essentially working around the clock. Server goes down at 11:50PM? Get up and fix it. Plugin broke after Spigot update? Get up and fix it. Then again, this only goes for established servers.

Which brings me to my next point. Stop joining terrible servers with greedy owners. If your prison server gives you god picks for $10, then leave. If your faction server gives you fly and god mode for god knows what, then leave. The servers are owned by the greedy.

There are good servers out there that you can easily find. Like you said, small-servers. But even large networks have good servers still.

Find one, and spend a few days on it. If you like it, and know that it's professionally ran, established, mature, updated and not too imbalanced, consider donating. It keeps Minecraft alive. It keeps developers alive, updates alive, artists alive. Donating $20 on a server you spend hours on a day is not a terrible thing to do. Just contribute to the right server.

The server you're on, clearly with the $600 rank is a joke. Ran by a 12 year old, who's running off a server host and support team that's doing it for them.

If not, it's an established server. A greedy one no doubt. You'll have two "types" of these servers. Big, monopoly servers...or small start-ups.

Big servers can charge that much because they're just so big. People donate because they feel secure on that server. Cost of getting a top 5 spot on Minecraftservers.org? Roughly $5,000/month.

If I were you, stick with the small servers. There's no point in getting angry at a market like this because there's so many good servers out there.