BB,
As I stated, I have nothing against an affiliate arangement if it is fairly stated. This goes for brokerages and software. I really find it measures the mark of a person by what their willing to endorse.
There are so many affiliate marketing hacks out there, that are willing to endorse every piece of new or, has been software that comes around the wheel. The only solution is to block their e-mails. They are really no different than all the newletter writers and stock pumpers who want to push their ideas.
Still, I've found it benefits me to be fairly trusting with my e-mail address. I've found a few people with good information and advice, free reports, EA testing results, etc. Sometimes its necessary to give them a litle leeway, thats is how they pay the bills. Personaly, I dont care for sales and marketing. I would prefer to trade for a living, manage some robots, and maybe even write a few. The robots are still new to me. Mostly I enjoy learning and sharing. Its good karma.
Don Steinitz, in one of his postings on the FPA forum, explained his
broker 
relationship. He recomends a prefered brokerage, and gets a kickback on trade volume as an introducing
broker . He has an arrangement where if you use his prefered
broker he splits the proceed with you through regular payments on your PayPal account. I think this is very fair.
A lot of hopeless traders want hopeless EA's. It supports their hopelessness. Like any subconscious dilema, its very hard to break that reaction. For many of us, becoming a competant trader requires a massive subconscious change. Very few of us are trained to handle this sort of endeavor, and only a few are willing to subject themselves to that sort of change.
On anouther topic, I have noticed that you have what you call discresionary EA's. This interests me. Most commercial EA's are black box systems, even the freeware thats available has a very limited user interface. This is what attracts me to an EA such as the Steinitz. It has an absolultely massive user interface. If one takes the time to get to know it, they can truly use the EA as an extension of their own trading. This I think is the goal, or at least my method. There are a lot of robot users who put forth the idea of running a portfolio of robots, hoping the diversification averages out. This may work, but it reminds me of something Warren Buffet said, “Wide
diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing,” and "
Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth."
I am looking for one or two great EA's that I totaly understand and agree with, that I can self manage. Unlike Warren's quotes on management, I dont believe a pure mechanical system can truly self manage. I believe that in the case of many of these robots, a little human intervetion and direction could improve the results drasticaly.
Be smart! Read the 
General Forex EA discussion 
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