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This is an excellent thread, and you should read it, and then come back here.
All of this is true, with one caveat: it's not always ego that makes professionals--I'm going to include authors and artists here--ask "is there any way to get in without paying the gate."
Worldcon is the home of the Hugo Awards. They're a big, important landmark in our genre scene, and people respect and honor and admire them, and being nominated for one doesn't mean your membership is suddenly free.
There are a lot of reasons for that, and most of them are covered in the original thread: it's important that we all do our very best to pay into this floating city, because our memberships are its tax dollars. They keep the lights on.
But especially if you're a new author--as all Campbell nominees are, by default--or someone who's in the early stages of your career, being nominated for a Hugo can seem like a massive financial obligation.
If you don't show up, there will always be people who judge you, who say you didn't care enough, who say you're disrespectful. And if you make it clear in advance that you won't be there, it can impact how people vote.
So if you're nominated, you feel like you MUST be there. And that's...that's travel, and hotel, and food, and something nice to wear to the increasingly festival atmosphere of the pre-Hugo reception and if all of these seem like nice problems to have, they can still be PROBLEMS.
"We love your work so much we want to give you a shot at this incredibly glorious award that you want so badly you could cry, now give us $800."
(And this is just focused on early-career authors. The rest of us have financial issues too. It's just that most of us have had a little longer to breathe and realize that missing one convention will not destroy us.)
(Proof: I had to miss Worldcon in Helsinki because of how much my vet bills had cost that year. I survived.)
So yes, the flounce, the "Don't they KNOW who I AM?," the arrogance, that all happens every year, and I see it too. If I demanded a free membership, it would be pure ego, and I don't do that.
But please don't dismiss every kinda-new author or artist you see going "It costs HOW much?" as flouncing. Some of them are staring at a mountain, and Brigadoon is at the top, and they want to climb so bad, but money is so tight.
There are fan funds and sponsorships and GoFundMes and ways to get up that mountain. It's still a mountain. When it scares someone, who should do our best to be kind.
