Why Sweden preferred armed neutrality to Allied payment

Why did Britain not simply pay Sweden to enter the war?

Because Sweden saw both Germany and the Soviet Union as threats and benefited strategically while they fought one another.

Sweden would have fought if its own security required intervention. It nevertheless regarded Germany and the Soviet Union as the two principal threats. While those powers were exhausting one another, Swedish leaders had little reason to exchange neutrality for British payment. The answer frames Swedish policy as a balance-of-power calculation rather than simple sympathy for either belligerent.