Regarding general population vs hackers: Do you imply that hackers value low price higher then others? Are hackers particularely poor? I thought hacker often means coder which usually means higher income then the general population.
Personally, I would totally prefer to pay 50% more and have my emails answered and my orders shipped.
Quoting from there:
> We're under constraints that we have no control over (e.g. border being closed between HK and mainland China), the shipping companies and carriers are under many constraints (self-imposed or imposed by regulators) and the logistic chain as a whole - including people - is under regulatory constraints. In short, current situation is not business as usual. I am getting many PMs and emails asking about status reports - as soon as I know something, I post it here, there is no need to PM or email me. Thank you for your continued patience!
Also, somewhere I've read that their shipping team is 4 people packing about 1000 items per day. Why increased demand doesn't cause increase in shipping team - that I don't know.
You can also connect to IRC/Telegram/Matrix channel and ask there - somebody with more knowledge might answer you.