Adding welfare cases makes NATO weaker. The combination of expanded obligations and additional votes in an organization that requires unanimity is turning NATO into an expensive bull session rather than an alliance with teeth. They need to get their act together, militarily, before we should consider admitting them. If they won't or can't do so, maybe they aren't cut out to be independent nations. There is a reason they remained a part of the Russian empire, whereas Poland and Finland drove the Russians out.
There’s no evidence for the “welfare cases” hypothesis. And judging any nation state to not be “cut out to be independent nations” is a excuse/justification for imperialismnot that the European Union’s imperialism is any better, but NATO is supposed to be the USA’s baby, not the EU’s.