PSA: Not including your hero in your defense is lowering your score potential and therefore your payout. You get some points for every weapon level (non linear, rarity doesn’t matter) and every hero talent unlocked (whether or not it is set).
Optimal team score team (for highest payouts) is "three mythic (ascended or base doesn’t matter) level 20 troops fully traited and a fully traited level 20 and champion level 100 hero (you can use a team code to disable most your talents if you so desire) wielding a +10 weapon (eg., something low threat warden’s gauntlets, or you can choose a low threat +9 weapon). The hero is very important, as this is worth over 900 score points, and depending where your team lands on someone’s score comparison, could mean a difference of hundreds of gold worth of payout.
It is preferable if you don’t put in anything to stall the match (no orbweaver or bandits, please, or barrier spam if you can avoid it).
Make sure to fight one ranked battle so the team can be seen for a bit.
This guy gets it:
I split the difference and went with a team that is a complete pushover if you pay minimal attention (won’t even get mana to do anything) but has close to the max score I can muster on this account, all team comp bonuses go to attack and not bulk, but it can kill you if it gets lucky:
Following a similar practice should be optimal for getting more teams that give good gold rewards back in circulation to at least curb payout issues slightly.