I think the shame is he has written some software I find valuable, and some tens of thousands others, but we refuse to value the author's ongoing commitment too.

Software that doesn't require a major ongoing effort can still be in dire need of support, like OpenSSL.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSSL#Heartbleed

OpenSSL falling over was a wakeup call that we continue to ignore even as NPM, Ruby and other packages are converted to malware because there's nothing in it for the original developer except more work.