I respect the club for its principled clarification of its own rules of admission.

I don’t see how "what-iffery" helps anyone. I’m sure Killian won’t be pacing anyone any time soon. He’s an exceptional case, and you can’t make rules for the majority of everyday cases which also account for every exception.

If the club chooses to promote an overall ethos of community over commercialism, it isn’t required to prohibit the smallest financial transactions between Round participants. If it wasn’t a club ran by volunteers, I’m sure it could publish a long list of exactly what forms of cash transactions are and aren’t acceptable for membership, but it is, so it doesn’t.