I can also see a need to pin posts without it being about earning. But earning comes as a direct consequence of that post. A non-opt-outable rewards fwding for owner pinned posts might be something worth doing.

But as an example a daily discussion thread could be a useful tool to consolidate a lot of the individual posts and generate the capitol to pay the monthly fees to keep the territory going.

Yes, for instance I would like to pin the College Bowl game pick 'em. The games are not for another two weeks and now it is far down the page so no one else is joining but if the current contest was pinned at the top of the territory I would get more participants. More participants means more interaction with the territory.