Thanks for the reply and a civilized one at that. I agree that people can order their approach to clients how they want and those who choose not to see those mistressss are free to decline it doesn’t make them bad, just unwilling to go that way in order to secure a session. But I think it is necessary to consider why they choose to do it that way, and to concede it isn’t something they ginned up out of whole cloth or as a money grab which many people (albeit not you) imply. Things like application fees, or deposits or the request for ID and social media profiles are a response to what the people asking for them have encountered in dealing with clients. Complaints about no shows, flakes, time wasters and the likes have existed since time immemorial and this is one attempt at a solution to it, and many of those who have adopted it find that it works. They may lose some potential clients…but they lose (almost) all potential time wasters.
While I appreciate your comments I am certain that those places did require exactly what I describe…they may have changed of course but there is objective evidence of it. In the case of Angel Stern’s it can be found at NYU in the papers of Terrance Sellars. In the case of Pandora’s Box following is a link to the photographic essay by Susan Meiseles about Pandora’s Box. If you scroll through the photos there is actually a photo of the intake document a prospective client filled out on a clipboard in the small waiting room (also pictured) before they showed you the portfolio of pictures and gave you your “member number”. At Pandora’s it came on a folding business card and inside said simply “Rare Objets d’art” with a line for your number. I still have mine…

https://www.susanmeiselas.com/pandoras-box

Again too each his own…like the rates charged the rules of admission vary and that is fine. My experience is that those who require a bit more effort have tended to take those who did it more seriously when it was done helping accelerate the connection we are all seeking. Others experiences may vary.