But other projects, such as ones that are less “fixing” and more “enhancing” might fit this model better.

The main reason why I don’t see it working on my type of work is that in the statements above, I see “responsibility’ also requiring authority. I don’t always have the authority to make changes, only the responsibility to make recommendations. That’s because I’m doing work on a segment of a much larger system. Any changes I recommend must fit within a larger program, so I can’t just make them and hope everything else works out well for everyone else. Yes, the changes will add value, but I can’t guarantee it because I can guarantee that the changes will be applied.

In order to do the value based stuff, I think there has to be a great deal of authority.

One final thought on the “cheaper than a employee” part: I’m not cheaper than an employee. I am less expensive than the group of employees they have who have tried to fix the problem before. It’s not a 1:1 comparison.

Let everyone make the choice on his own…