The implications that come monetizing mods are many, and may even have unexpected consequences. I will try to analyse the problem from the perspective of Larian, the modder and the player
Let's assume that mods are monetized:
Larian built the engine and built the editor. If mods are monetized, maybe they want some of that money. They deserve it and it's fair.
If Larian wants some of the money (I'll explore later how Larian could do it), they automatically are bound to the editor. This way they are selling the editor/license to the editor. So they have to give support to the editor and the engine. This will add a new "business" side (building game-making tools) that they may not want.
If they don't want any money, they are not (morally) obliged to support the editor. But as there are other people making money from it, I can see lots of modders spamming them with "Fix bug XYZ" and a lot of griefing.
How can Larian make money with the editor.
Some user suggested something like what Wizards of the Coast did with D&D 3.5, the OGL. This basically says "You can sell products based on our game as long as you don't use our fluff, certain names and our artwork, and we ask no money in return". This was, from a business perspective, a very bad idea. I could grab the books, reskin everything and just sell it as my product. This also allowed WotC's biggest competitor to rise: Paizo with Pathfinder, that uses the rules that WotC created.
Like WotC, Larian could allow the use of the editor for free but forbid the use of their assets for commercial mods. This could lead to a competitor, like in Wotc's story. This would also make modding much harder. If I want to sell a mod I would have to make *everything* in it from scratch. (one of the good things of modding game is that we already have an engine *and* assets, scripts, sounds, etc.)
They could also ask for a percentage of the sales, but that would be tricky. How would they monitorize that? One way is to add a unified distribution method, maybe a Divinity workshop/nexus. Either Larian would do it - more work for Larian - or a new entity would make it - more entities in the pipeline, profiting from it and revenue getting diluted.
Or they could sell the editor but give a less-featured version for free. People who just want to have fun would be angry to be using a gimped editor.
How would this affect modders.
To start, some modders could be earning some money for their efforts. That's not bad.
But It would make modders much more secretive about what they are building and how. They whole community would, in my opinion, be much smaller and less thriving.
There is also the problem of stealing content. When there is money involved, things get serious fast and furiously. So the modders would ask for a way to protect their work, like packaging it with passwords or drm. More work for Larian, as they would have to implement that feature.
The protected mods would also prevent new modders to come to the community, as they cannot look at existing mods to learn the ropes.
What about the players?
It will all hinge in how the players value the mods and Divinity itself. If the player has bought Divinity and has finished it / is bored with it / wants to spice things up, mods give the opportunity to lengthen the game's lifetime. But if the mods cost money many would just drop the game, even if it would only cost 1€ for a sheep companion. And if he wants lots of mods (undead companion + alien planet map + light/dark spells + giant robots, for example) that would require big money.
There would also be a much smaller amount of mods (for the reasons outlined in the previous section) so it would be harder to make "your custom divinity game".
And finally, there are some players that come to the game because of mods or a specific mod. In the second case, they would have not only have to buy Divinity but the mod as well. That would turn off some people.
In my opinion, mods should *NOT* be commercialized/monetized.
It allows Larian to focus on doing what they want (make games, I hope).
It allows the community to grow as community, not some closed modders building stuff in hiding. This allows for a bigger number of mods and a bigger number of modders.
More mods increase the value and lifetime of the game, that makes Larian sell more copies of Divinity.
