Sorry to say that, but it is a strange attitude you brothers have towards masonry. Pay the due, be a mason, have a funeral? Is that all? I really miss some aspects here in the discussion. How do EAs and FC feel? How many do not come back after their initiation? What are the arguments of those? Is support only financial? Do they not support their lodge by feeling of being a part of it? Do they not support the lodge by participating?
How can you really be a (craft) master, when you deny yourself the experience of accompany an EA and FC along his way? How can you really be a master, if you just surround yourself with other masters?
I know, you do this for many years and you know it that way. But remember, that masonry was not invented in the USA, it was imported. And it was different back then. The way you do it is not written in stone, it is the modification of a modification of the original. So, having it this way is not an argument. It is a product of the 18th century, modified in the 19th due to the Morgan Affair. How was it before that? Was it better or worse? Or just different?
If your lodges need financial support, you have one of two problems, a problem of membership being too small, or a problem of projects being too large. If you have a membership problem, making EAs and FCs members could help. Not only for the dues paying, but for the whole membership. If you have a project problem, EAs and FCs will not solve the problem, no matter if they pay dues, half dues or nothing at all.