> thanklessly maintaining for decades with no pay. This is clearly an issue

Why is it an issue?

This is an assumption. Not everyone who creates and maintains FOSS expects to be paid in money. Many of us got to where we are off the backs of previous FOSS authors freely given efforts and feel that it's our way of giving back to the world.

If there is one critical dependency, relied upon by many, where the single author/maintainer is literally crying for help - in that they are unable or unwilling to continue giving their free time - then fine, maybe _that_ project needs outside help or outside funding... but that is entirely subjective.