It is even nicer to get paid for consulting work (or does anyone believe Musk's drones are doing it for free) when it allows you to eliminate competition from lower paid staff. Tax dollars working on establishing new high watermarks for conflicts of interest.
There was a guy who posted here in HN about to go work for Doge but he decided to learn physics in Hawaii instead. He sold a company and didn't need to work anymore.
I imagine those are the types attracted to this work to potentially do it for free or cheap
