[amanj41]

What exactly would they bring though? Anything inside the sub could not be dropped off anywhere. Maybe they could have collected research data to sell to certain scientific institutes, but that doesn't sound like it would recoup much of the costs

[marcosdumay]

Probably, lights and a good camera.

The goal is just to run on the blue, so that they are not pressured to finish their testing earlier. I can't imagine there isn't enough to film at that depth so that they can't find people willing to pay for the operational costs.