How should we understand the motivations, ethics, objectification, degree of informed consent, etc., of trophy wives, gold diggers, “hostesses,” poules de luxe, etc.?

As long as consent is present in their decisions, we don’t need to understand their motivations.

Your motivations for phrasing the question the way you did are worth examining, however. There’s more than a smidgen of judgement, disgust, and derision in the terms you’ve chosen to use to describe women that expect compensation for romantic/sexual contact.

Your attempts at wh*rephobia and wh*re stigma have been noted. Try to do better than belittling women that don’t meet your problematic ideal of propriety.

As long as women aren’t forcing anyone to be sexual with them, they can be sexual (and nonsexual) for any reason they like. Case closed.