Andrew,
I must say, this is a great idea to some extent. you are dealing with two different entities here:

Trusted Developers

and

Certified Functional Modules

Trusted Developers should be easy, and there have been as mentioned petitions requesting certain developers be granted Trusted Status. though fallen on a deaf ear, or the 'change' didnt ching-a-ling loud enough, so there was no effort put forth. You know without a doubt who the Trusted Developers are, and who deserves being granted see more the Trusted Badge.

Certifying the modules, thats a tough one. should there be a cost incurred 'absolutely' thats part of doing business. but exactly what method or procedure would be performed to determine if the module is certifiable? because as we all know, there are many parts of Dolphin as released that does not function, thus how could it be determined from the very ones who wrote the half-baked source that doesnt work, if something is compatible or not compatible?

i do like your idea of both establishing yourself as a Trusted Developer, and further for having each module certified. though this brings up another catch, what about the FREE modules? i dont think they should be admonished from offering open source, and cant see where it would be beneficial to someone like Deano who offers his Deano's Tools for free, to pay $30.00, nor do i think he would pay $30.00 for having the module certified. how would you manage that perspective?

the price for providing updates is stiff, because most of these developers do not charge for their updates, i cant see the logic in charging for providing updates. i think that part of ongoing certification would involve some type of follow up from the boonex staff, and yes, its time consuming, but its the nature of the beast, or the way it was put to me:

thats the way it has been, and the way it will be: :)

so charging the $30 one time certification fee is something that would require boonex to continue to monitor the market, and if you are not going to monitor the market, then the market should be closed.

something has to be done, and you are making steps in the correct direction, and i can only hope the best in the choices that are made, and to pray that its not monetary compensation that drives the train, leaving out the consideration for the developer and unity member?