I have a copy of a 1998 interview issue of a Transworld, where all these pros are giving their opinion of the current skate industry.
Almost every interview in that thing has someone complaining about how there's "too many pros these days", that the market was flooded, game was fucked up, "back in 1993 you had to pay your dues", "it doesn't mean anything anymore", etc etc etc.
people have been bitching about this since the beginning of street skateboarding. It seems like a dumb argument in 1998 and it seems like a dumb argument now. it never seems to actually "fuck up the game" or water it down the way people claim it will -- after all, it's 2022 and the industry is still here and the culture is still alive. I think it's a thinly veiled way of screaming into the abyss "i hate change" or "new things are scary" or maybe "i like the existing monopolies"
I think the only criteria to put someone's name on a skateboard should be that the company is stoked on them, and they think that person can sell a few boards to the target demo. Any other criteria for what makes a "real" pro are gonna be either jockish (how many inches high can you ollie) or impossible to define in objective terms (he/she/they paid their """d u e s""")