My understanding is that Channel Awesome covered travel and lodging for the contributors who appeared in the anniversary specials. They were not being paid to appear in the specials, and since being in them usually led to a disruption in their own production cycle (therefore posing a potential threat to their revenue streams), they were encouraged to film their own crossover episodes when they weren’t shooting. And even though I know this was just in service of silly internet movies and reviews, that does sound exhausting, but that’s usually the case when it comes to amateur productions.