[wmf]

Does it still require payment to get a “proper” identity?

Yes, scarce identities are an intentional anti-Sybil feature.

And if you actually want to run something, well, I hope you have your wallet ready…

Well yeah, CPUs do cost money. Or you could just run Urbit on the computer you already have. It's easy to say that computing should run on the kindness of strangers but those systems are even more immature than Urbit.