Personally I've found the GDT to be more of a directory of developers who may be able to help you out. Here's an example where it was successful:
Recently sssssssssss Forum PM'd me requesting help (mention for his server, I helped him out by finishing a couple of his requests and taught him a few things to make development easier on himself.
If you have a plan for your server, and know exactly what you want done then the GDT can be a great help to you.
Now, not hiring people because you not might be able to get a backup isn't a good reason. All kinds of the abuse you listed can be prevented by only giving people rights they actually need, and making them go through a small interview to make sure they're not an idiot.
Since your server is UC, you don't have to worry about account data at all unlike Era, UN, and Zodiac. You can use the File Browser and make script backups with these folder rights:
PHP Code:
rw npcs/*
-r npcs/npclocalnpc*
rw scripts/*
rw weapons/*
I personally just create a folder name it "NC Backup - MMDDYYYY", create the weapons, npcs, and script folders to mimic the folder structure, then drag-n-drop them, zip it up, and place it in my DropBox (Great Backup / Group File Sharing program).