Back in the day, game testers were paid to test the game. Now you pay to test it. Cant even finish the first fight of the game due to 5-10 minutes lag in 2 player multiplayer mode. wow.
Early access isn't about testing; that will be a separate process as it was with e.g. DOS2. Play-testers were given signed(? I think) collectors' editions, listed in the credits etc; not sure about pay and expenses. EA is in essence a (rather advanced) pre-pay but with an opportunity to influence the finalised game as well as the early preview.
