If it were contractual, yes it would be, £10 is probably actually well above the minimum wage, because as with Voice Acting (much to my chagrin) you get paid PFH, or ‘Per Finished Hour’ so only for the actual time ‘on screen’ or ‘speaking’. I don’t get paid for preparing lots of soothing drinks to tone my voice, pre-reading the chapter, any practice warm up routines I use to get my voice limbered up, and all the techno-tidying up of the recording afterwards, I just get paid for the finished product, which if it took four hours in total to produce, but was One hour in duration, I’m getting paid for the one hour. (This is why every VA’s dream job is Audiobooks, as they tend to be royalties based when it comes to pay) Extra work is kind of similar, in that you are only actually paid for the time on screen, (which is usually fleeting) although mostly they make remuneration for your expenses to a degree, to maintain goodwill. Now if you are a professional Extra, it tends to be different, but then the lines blur between being an Extra, and a card carrying Equity ‘Luvvie’ 
And that is fine, and indeed dandy, in which case you have a wide variety of servers you can play on, so there is no real need for you to come to the only RP server, if you have no interest in RP.
They don’t. They don’t ‘Look cringe’. Something cannot ‘look cringe’. That is not how the word works, it is an action, not a description. A person can cringe, a situation can be cringeworthy, or make someone want to cringe, but cringe is not a stand alone word that way, Just a pointer.
Now, as to whether RP events look cringeworthy, I would argue that point, essentially we are talking people acting as other people, I mean that is the essence of RP, -Playing- a -Role- in a setting. It is that simple. Have you ever watched drama on TV, or seen a Film? That’s what it is (Except they get paid much more, going back to Coldshade’s point!). Keanu Reeves is not John Wick. Keanu Reeves is pretending/acting. John Wick is not a real person. There is fundamentally no difference between roleplaying and acting, I mean an actor is by definition, roleplaying, they’ve just found a way of making money out of it! So really, RP is no more, or less when it comes to being cringeworthy, than the sort of thing you will happily watch on stage, on the silver screen, or on the gogglebox at home.
Well, I kind of think you answered your own observation there, really. RP isn’t for everyone, which is fine, some people don’t like books or reading, I guess they don’t go to many libraries. Would be a bit weird if they went to a library and complained about it being full of books, because books are ‘cringe’, No? I mean that would be really odd…
Same with RP. Not interested in it? That’s all kinds of fine and tickety-boo, the world is pretty much your oyster in terms of picking a server. Do like it? Fantastic, Argent Dawn caters to that market.
It really is that simple. Have fun with your PvP or PvE escapades!
I’ll take your advice next time.