That is seriously one of the best parts about it. Besides getting the awesome satisfaction of seeing my contributions live on the site and even occasionally stumbling across my themes on other people's journals, being paid in DW points has allowed me a chance that I never have otherwise, which is that I get to spend those points on other people and be anonymously gifty, because it seems that when frequently submitting you earn a lot more than you can use on yourself. And it's great, because my financial situation just doesn't let me do those sort of nice things otherwise, in or in other areas of my life, and I get the biggest amount of joy from being able to give gifts funded by the theme work I do.