Just finished playing some DtV.
Not sure what the outrage is, was a fairly fun game (but most I was playing with were competent). I enjoyed it a lot, because I could use all my equipment and there was no upkeep. I say, keep DtV as no upkeep. The "rewards" as they currently are, won't cover upkeep for anyone. Plus, it would take a long time to grind on it now for gold and exp, compared to how it was. So.. let players use all their equipment without going broke, to enjoy a game against NPCs while gaining a little exp and gold.
Seems like a fair solution, than going to the opposite extreme of how it had been.
Edit: Also it didn't really seem like exp/gold reward was going up much for each new round? Those will definitely have to be increased by a lot, if you plan to have upkeep in DtV or else it will be unplayable.