The way that I look at it is that the vast majority of developers depend on some open source project. This means that we find bugs or missing features in other peoples code in our day to day coding. That's a perfect excuse to contribute upstream. If your company has legal policies against that, then honestly... there are other jobs out there. I know that sounds kind of blunt, but I've always made it clear to my employers before I start, that I'm going to contribute to the greater good as part of my work.

In this case, I needed the code for an internal project and decided that the company would benefit the most from making it a library and getting outside help on it. It was an itch that I knew many other people needed scratched because there was a competing project that had gone silent and was incomplete/poor quality. That justified my time spent... I had to write the code either way, might as well make it open.

When I look for people to hire, and I've done a lot of hiring over the years, I primarily look for people like myself who put that extra effort in. Either in their own personal projects or by at least contributing to something upstream. Even just simple documentation changes is something I'd hire over. I fully understand that people have lives outside of work, but honestly... if you're going to be a top developer, you've got to put in a top level of effort, because other people around you are.