This not only discredits the fork for many (most?) people but also adds instant sell pressure from insiders.

I don't yet have an opinion about the fork, but I agree with that, It seems a pure self pay trick, without any benefit for the project/community (minus the possible marketing investment they will able to do).

There would be no fork in that case, because there would be no money to pay for all the initial development work the sidechains need and whatnot. Do you know how much money is poured into developing Bitcoin Core as well as grants for tons of other useless projects every year? If eCash received 10%...

Yerp, and that will cause another fork, splitting the few who would get behind the paul-fork