If the world was more like disney imagines it to be then this could be possible. Or your parents are very rich and you don't have to pay rent etc. for yourself.

But in the end artists just like open source maintainers need money to pay their food and most of them can't afford to stop charging for their work.

I would love to do that but I can't afford it so I won't. If the system changes and the government gives every citizen 1k $ / month we can start this discussion again because I would really much appreciate to do things that I like without having to take money for my work.

A lot of people on this forum probably are pretty happy-go-lucky with their negotiating.

The difference between $200k and $300k is a lot, but I see a lot of unattached young people not really caring. Ironically, it seems much smaller than the difference between $20k and $30k.

But most artists don't have people breaking their door down to compete for their time. And anyways, coding is a creative profession; I'm sure that plenty of techies are aspiring artists who didn't like their odds.

I'm surprised that more people don't see exclusively 'ex post facto' rewards as a sort of corrupting influence on the creation of art, rather than a motivator.