Ha! Sneaky for sure
In economics there is a point on the curve where the maximum return on investment lies. If you don't do enough volume to reach it, you aren't maximizing your profits, but the same thing holds true in that if you do too much volume for a specific business model your dollars per unit sold (in this case a webmaster join) get to be progressively lower for each sale as well.
Finding that optimum point on the curve isn't the easiest thing when you have soooo many variables that can come into play...