[3.5] Otyugh Hole: Who uses it? Why? How?

[Douglas]

Why ever would you have to pay 3k gold for that?

(yes, I'm more concerned with the IC reasons for paying that... Does the GM really go "Yeah, so you murdered that entire orphanage; these guys are throwing you in jail... and charging you 3k to do it!"?)

You don't. The 3k value is only for WBL purposes. If you create a character above level 1, you can insert the location into your backstory and gain its benefit by sacrificing - out of game, in character building - that amount of money. If you encounter the location in game and the DM is carefully monitoring and controlling the amount of equipment you get, he counts getting the location's benefit as equivalent to 3k gold worth of loot. If you, as a player, visit the location in game and stay there long enough to qualify, you get the benefit free of charge.