I disagree with a lot of things staff does, but if you can't see the logic behind players being able to sell their pins then there really is no reasoning with you.
For the most part, the lucky penny pixels were given to people who actively sought out Skye to hang out and see how she was doing. So people who felt close with her visited and received pixels.
The situation escalated, with the help of staff, by them trying to make Skye's "last days" special and magical. The pin was made.
Skye was found to be a fraud. Simply a falsehood that tugged on many players' hearts. The players who actively sought out the company of Skye were left with a pin to remember her by, but it is now tainted with malice and deceit.
The staff probably feel bad, because they did bring quite a lot of attention to Skye, aiding in the emotional connection people had to her, and they now offer the players who were directly bamboozled (by Skye with promotion from staff) the option to sell the pin. The 5k is simply a "sorry we accidentally aided in the glorification of skye, hopefully this can make up for it a little."
Like come on. Why are people SO amped about 5k? There is an obvious reason for it. Just like staff would help someone get items back for being scammed, they're giving the option of receiving 5k to the people who sought to help, but ultimately were emotionally scammed by "skyeviolet."
I won't be posting further on this topic.