Chig,
The sheer necessity for them to go where the audience is does suggest that they may well be paid well to pour poison in the ears of any listener.
I don't believe they fall in the category of what we usually have in mind when we say: Paid Basher, but I do think they have someone's interest in mind that isn't DNAP's or it's long-term investors.
I was always struck by Indy's alarm when we suggested leaving Raging Bull to come to IHUB. He implored us not leave RB. Shortly after the migration to IHUB, he disappeared, and returns occasionally to inform us of something he's read and wishes to share, but his reason for being a regular on RB seemed to vanish with our departure for IHUB.
Somewhere in that answer is the reason spook and frog and big follow the crowd. It could be something as simple as needing friendship, needing to be heard, needing a less-stifling environment than that in which they live,
BUT, I DOUBT IT!