For me, free modding has always been an axiom, and I strongly oppose any form of payment, even in the form of voluntary donations.
Moreover, I am fundamentally against the commercial creative industry.
Creation is something people do for their own enjoyment, realizing their own dreams and desires. If it (a book, a mod, a song, a YouTube video) is released publicly and becomes popular, then a pleasant bonus is the gratitude from those who also liked it, and in special cases - fame.
Money has no place here, unless the project itself requires material investment (such as films, which require huge funds for sets, costumes, etc.).
Yes, modding can sometimes be a pain (finding and fixing bugs, for example), and you can also burn out if you work on the same game for too long and get tired of it.
But in that case, the best solution is to simply step away and do something else. Rather than torturing yourself, while begging for money, trying to artificially motivate yourself.
There will always be someone else to take your place. Someone who has recently become interested in the game and enjoys it.
Turning creation into work is a perversion, in my opinion.
Added 1 hour 6 minutes ago
By the way, there is a super-duper map in Heroes 4 called "The Legacy of Zanphas"... it would be great to implement it in Heroes 5

The idea is that there is only one main hero - a light/elf/elf - and you cannot hire other heroes... but there are as many enemies as possible - each enemy is unique in race and, of course, cannot be a light/elf/elf!
I have the music (somewhere)... in the style of Heroes 5!
I also have an idea for a historical map/campaign for orcs... the idea is that orcs are attacked from all sides by enemies, and to raise their morale, a certain orc visits an old shaman, who tells him that the Sky and the Earth told her that he must find two ancient artifacts - the weapon of the Great Chieftain Kashar, a glorious ancestor of the famous Sharka (Sharka... I don't know if the name declines in Orcish), because after the last meeting with the necromancer Anastasia, the fate of the legendary weapon is unknown!
I have the music... in the style of Heroes 5!
If anyone wants to take on the implementation, write to me in a private message... I'll send you the orc music!

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Неудачное планирование ведёт к неудаче ...
NCF - мод, добавляющий дополнительных существ в HeroesV 3.1