Yes, as long as the payments are individually relatively small and anonymous, it's easy for people to misunderstand the amount they may actually be getting. Once you paint a target in the millions, people will notice more, it will become a bigger news story, some congressman or another will make it a pet cause, and then you've got a lot or attention on you. Like any criminal enterprise, the less attention from authorities the better.
- Make a big target amount of money that any large company can pay, eg $10M, and tell people you'll release everyone's key if the amount is raised.
- Use an online board like this one to control the state of your network.
- Embarrass individual firms by posting pics of their offices from their own webcams.
Etc, etc. I reckon talking about these sorts of things will help find solutions rather than just inspire the bad guys.