It makes sense, but unfortunately, it doesn't make sense for the project owners to make it happen. In fact, they create a kind of mobility by distributing their own token. They do work for them. There's no money left in your pockets.
This is the right answer. Nobody wants to risk their own money if he can give away something that costs him almost nothing. Also, it is very important that people agree to work for tokens - if there were no supporters it would have to change for (for example) USDT.
That's very selfish of them.
If the project will become a success they will be benefited more as they are running it and they control the terms, on the other hand, if it fails it will cost them nothing, that's a pretty way to run a project but I don't appreciate that kind of strategy and therefore would not trust them .
Running an ICO always require some budget, as a team, you should also have a funds from the very beginning and paying USDT if it will make the project better then I guess it should be done. This concern was only raise because of the market condition, so it's a case to case basis.