This is really not that insane. You can still use third party volunteer run servers for free or your own and I'm assuming there's no reason you can't continue to do so.

This monetary model could very well work to inventivise a larger server pool and thus greater anonymity set. My main concern is if having to hold the access NFT in a EVM wallet would be a metadata leak, or they will do some sort of ZK proof mathematics to disconnect the data link between your messaging and that EVM wallet.

Not every crypto project wants to be number go up ad infinitum like Bitcoin. There are greater utilities for the smart contract blockchain system. It's worth hearing our their detailed proposal and auditing the code instead of flipping shit over "shitcoinery".