There is a fact about Team Flare that I can't check in my copy of X without starting a new save file, but fortunately I found it in the Trivia Section of the Team Flare Bulbapedia article-
As a quick reminder, the maximum amount of money you can hold in Pokémon X and Y is 9,999,999 Pokédollars.
Lysandre wanted you to cough up more than half of the maximum amount of money you can have at any given time just to join Team Flare, nothing else.
Again: You need to pay 5 million to simply join an organisation that strives to make the world a better and more beautiful place (and not run the risk of being killed by Lysandre)
5 MILLION POKÉDOLLARS
So even before Lysandre planned to do a little hehehaha mortal middle management, Team Flare's ideology involved only letting people into the team who could pay the hefty entry fee - Because your dreams don't matter and you're not welcome unless you have the cash to back it up.
Truly magnifiqué if I do say so myself /sarc
