how much money would be needed to gain Max Contributor Level?

https://www.steamgifts.com/about/faq

5000 dollars

Ultimately it depends on where you live and how you end up getting your contributor value. In order to reach level 10 you need a contributor value of $5000, but the contributor value of a game is based on the US steam store prices, and if you're from a place where games are cheaper, then you'll get more CV per $ spent (though salary will of course also likely be lower). Let's say a game costs $50 in the US, but $25 in your region, then you would still get $50 contributor value for the game.

Also, as long as the discount of a game isn't too steep, you'll still get full contributor value for it. So buying a game that's 75% off will still net you full contributor value. If a game has ever been in a bundle or received a massive discount its contributor value will be slashed to 15% of its US price, it does not matter how you got the game, all that matters is that the game once reached the threshold for "bundled" status.

So there's no simple answer to your question. It can cost you far more than $5000, or far less than $5000. I would not recommend aiming for max level though, give what you want and can afford. Most people will give away leftovers from bundles they've bought, and that's usually enough to get pretty far.

just give when you can and dont think about cv.

There really is no point to concentrate that much on levels anyway. Most games are given away for lower levels and majority of my wins over the years are from level 1-2 or group giveaways. And its not really that difficult to attain the levels - sure the level 10 requires crazy amount of giveaways - but I truly doubt anyone at Level 9 or 10 care about the high level much. At that point when they have done thousands of giveaways its more about sharing games.

So getting to level 4-5 really requires little funds. For example check Deals section in forum and go to any Fanatical bundle. Check how much CV you receive from each game and you can slowly level up with bundles alone. Half of the time here I was a student - my fund were very limited as well. But when I got something from myself, there was always a key or two I didn't want so I put them up.

You really shouldn't look for unfairness in everything because then it will be the only thing you will see in the system. Everything always will be bad if you keep on concentrating on bad things.