[mrtksn]

I guess its something you can do if you don't care about your reputation and you need the money now, this is because It's very uncomfortable to work with people who throw a scene just like that.

We haven't heard the other side of the argument, have we? Maybe it's not as simple as services delivered payment withheld.

[yieldcrv]

I’ve taken risks like that, bucking “reputation” scare tactics, and people respected me more

I’ve seen a lot of things like that flip over the last 2 decades

Where the abuser doesn’t tend to be able to control reputation across an industry, so they can be called out

A freelance software developer wouldn't be affected by that, YMMV