I'm asking whether it's on the cards to possibly switch the system to only paying out once the work has been completed.
The whole point of funding proposals is that who ever is working on them does not have the resources to complete them. If they had the resources why would they ask for funding in the first place? Imagine someone putting time and effort on a project only to find that the stakeholders do not approve the proposal.
The way the system is setup right now people get partial payments and if they do not show any progress we can remove our votes or vote on the return proposal. With the current setup there is always the risk that someone will not do the work and get paid anyway but at least we can stop the payments when that happens (not to mention the hit on the reputation that someone would take for that).
We already have an example of a former witness who lost funding for his project along with his spot as a consensus witness.
How exactly would you improve the system? I am not talking about code but the mechanics of it.