and, on the flipside, it doesn’t actually take a lot to maintain goodwill — devolving some decision making and responsibility, some budget for smallish expenses needed to do the work, not too much micro management, perhaps some free coffee and a desk with a computer, an office with a window, etc

Bloody typical.

Non-members at HEIs that stopped covering registration costs to save money can't afford to go the BSA conference anyway, but at least if it was gonna be held at UoE I could have snuck in and out of stuff that I really wanted to hear about.
The irony of BSA's financial gatekeeping is not lost on me.

And I don't know if the answer is: everyone is too traumatized to do work and we need to reinvent society. Or if it's more like: generations are losing their cognitive abilities and willpower due to destructive technologies. Or: we all have post-viral brain damage. Or: all of the above.