> indicative of a hair-splitting, underhanded mentality
I believe you may be wrong about that. But it appears you've now found a good match in Spark! On the down side, it may then be the only game in town for you, there are good reasons for the 'company pays fees' rule, see elsewhere in this thread for one possible reason.
As previously stated, I have never and would never approach a traditional VC in the first place for a host of reasons, this being one of them. There is no VC game in town for me, and I am perfectly content with that.
I believe you may be wrong about that. But it appears you've now found a good match in Spark! On the down side, it may then be the only game in town for you, there are good reasons for the 'company pays fees' rule, see elsewhere in this thread for one possible reason.