This tradition of having entry fees fund prizes for amateur and open sections of tournaments goes back many decades. Elite round robins depended on sponsors or benefactors to provide the appearance fees, hotel rooms, prizes and pocket money. Even these major tournaments scrambled to gather enough cash to fund them and often solicited the public to provide money. Like it or not, in the US, this is how the system has worked. If high rated players want to s-u-c-k up all of the prize money only to themselves, then they should cozy up to more generous benefactors rather than whine about the money class players earn. The images of lampreys and leeches come to mind. Most higher rated players don’t typically think in such a parasitic fashion and play under the conditions offered.