Nope. The $5 is there for a very good reason. Quite frankly, it should be more. $15 at least, and restricted accounts should be more restricted in terms of posting priviledges.

Nope. Spend the $5.

By spending that $5 USD it prevents bad actors from making throw away accounts to spam users with scams.

And it also prevents bad faith actors with limited alts from posting too much in the forums as well.

No. Just spend the 5 bucks.

It also discourages people for making a ton of burner accounts.

If you could do that, it would defeat the whole point.

You must at least buy a coffee to sit in McDonald's and bum their wifi.