What about a scenario where a project after requesting for such payment from participants actually airdropped but to just about 15% of their participants out of a 100% that made that TON payment task. Can that still be regarded as some form of scam? since the notion has been that most of these airdrops that request some fee to be paid don't usually fulfill their promise.
That's outright scamming, If you set the rule on how participants will qualify for the airdrop and you did not fulfill the promise, then people will lose trust on your project.
If people participate, then they deserve to get what they worked for, Take a look at Dogs it did not ask for payment to qualify, but all participants received their allocation, and so the project has moved forward to their development.
They need to make sure that everyone that pays to receive their allocation should receive it on time, no one should be left behind or people will mark their project as a scam.