Yup. Money talks, bullshit walks. The only other type of 'payment' is acknowledgement by one's peers (Pulitzer, Nobel, Newberry awards) or by the community at large(for example, amateur astronomers get put in the books as discovering a new star or comet or whatever).

To be honest, a lot of fanfic writers and readers have the same 'commodity' mindset about fanfiction. Look at how many people complain about not getting as many reviews as they'd like, or why another genre of fic is more popular, or -- and this is a biggie -- "Why is everyone writing X/Y? Why can't I find more X/Z stories?!" A while back, there were even posts on metafandom about reviews and feedback being a type of 'payment' for writing. Recently there were discussions about whether or not fanfic writers should respond to comments; more than a few people had the "I read your story, bitch, so fucking thank me for it!" attitude.

Fanfic does have an economy; it's just not with real-world money. People are just going to have to deal.