Declining the rewards is the minimum I’d say, but it generally doesn’t happen. Many probably don’t know how to do it, or even that it can be done.

I used pixabay myself in the past, and I think rare use of it is ok, but I am very reluctant to do it now. I have a post on Thursday for which I needed a beautiful woman image, but I don’t want to use pixabay, no worries, I contacted one of my good friends on Hive who sent me an image to use, one of herself, that she took herself, and that’s what I’m using - with credit clearly written of course. I’d rather do that than go to pixabay.