Sometimes I report a bug & the dev starts off asking for more details. But then there’s a kind of scope of effort creep where you start to realize you’re being tricked into finding where in the code the problem is so you can fix the bug.
It’s a bit of social engineering of sorts. When I post a bug, I do that from the back seat of the car. And it’s like the dev sits in the backseat as well while coercing me into the front seat. So sometimes there’s a bit of weasel words and nuances with sneaky wording that needs to be deployed in order to stay in the backseat while trying to get the dev into the front seat where they belong!
If you’re not paying that engineer, you have no good reason to form opinions about “where they belong” in terms of work they do that might benefit you.
Someone tasking someone else without paying them is indeed being not where they belong. In the case of the OP, that’s the dev tasking the bug reporter.