I think that it's immoral for a gliding club to expect an "outsider" to fly the tug for free. After all, the club charge for a launch yet keep all the profits for themselves
Gliding clubs don't make a profit, and if they do, the profits get re-invested.
Having one or more full-time tuggies is useful for a big club like Lasham in the summer as there's continuous demand from glider pilots that can't necessarily be filled just from the members' rota.
I rather like the gliding club culture in the UK - it's 99% volunteer labour and everything's done at cost.