My reasoning behind my opposition to that is purely a personal opinion based on what I would think if I was looking for a platform to publish a poetry tutorial, for example. I would be seriously turned off to have to pay to share my knowledge.

Exactly this, which is why the promotion will be a feature tutorials creators can opt to choose for. We will never force a tutorial maker to give up part of their tutorial rewards, instead the tutorial maker can choose whether he or she wants to use our promotion "service" for which the price will be a part of the posting rewards. This promotion service could be a curation service in which we could reward the quality of the tutorial through an upvote and good rating.

How does this sound to you?