If you’re telling me in the invite to bring five bucks, you’re telling me to bring a gift. If you want no gifts then state “no gifts.”
I do get the rest of what you’re saying. When I turned four my grandmother invited my primary class (first and last class party I ever had, HATED it) and I got, I kid you not, fifteen little pink purses. They must have been on sale or something, lol. Not sure what Grandma did with them, probably gave them to the little girls who gave them to me. But yeah, it was all pointless and useless.
I’ve never thrown my kids class parties and rarely send them to class parties. They get to invite a couple of good friends for an outing or movie night or something like that and if they go to a party it’s for someone they actually know and are friends with. Like a PP I take them and let them pick something out. Hopefully it’s something they’ll appreciate since they know the kid and presumably know what they like.
Here (in grade school anway) if you hand out invites in school you have to invite the entire class. With 30-40 kids at $5 a pop it comes off as a money grab.