[throwaway290]

People who actually rely on Upwork care about fresh reputation and active status. Platform makes it appealing to stay active. They have a decent reputation with customers, so it's a backup for when you fire your current client. But if you are inactive they stop recommending you and after a while you are delisted making it tougher to get clients. And customers like to see people who are active.

Also, automatic billing is a big value add for those of us who hate paperwork and chasing non paying customers. Upwork does it for you.

Re crypto, it's an appealing vehicle for laundering and we don't want to be implicated. couple of clients suggested it and it's a red flag for me. (if you want to get paid in crypto I don't get why you would use Upwork at all honestly, surely you have your own great platforms with how much talent is supposedly working on that web3 stuff)