Make Stripe Optional

I strongly suggest that you decouple Monitization from any payment processor(s). This is because you offer a lot of monetization possibilities, but the current arrangement simply makes a waste of them. Let me explain.

You have an arrangement where people can grant access to users or members who pay through other payment channels or processors other than Stripe. However, to be able to get to that usability, one must first set up their Stripe account.

This is limiting and unnecessary because if setting up Stripe is made optional, then community owners who do not have Stripe could still set up monetization and benefit from all the fantastic features you have provided, like tiers, payment related emails, coupons codes, and then of course the feature that makes it possible to grant access to users who pay through say PayPal by adding payment exceptions, etc.

Just put out a caveat to let members know that if they want to have the full benefits of your current monetization setup, they can only do it through Stripe, but if they don't mind missing out on a few perks made possible by Stripe, then they can choose to use other payment options.

The current arrangement means that simply because a community owner doesn't have a Stripe account, they don't get to use any of all the other fantastic payment features you have developed. You must agree that is unfortunate, yes?