Just the other day I cloned one of these[1] in freecad using the image importing and scaling, quickly made a trace, added a pad and some chamfers, and had it on the 3d printer in about 25 minutes.
I'd love if FreeCAD got a benefactor like you mention.
[1]https://www.amazon.com/TILISMA-Book-Page-Holder-Accessories/...
I want to love FreeCAD, but it is hard to work with for complex designs compared to other tools; topological naming has been an absolute nightmare, but I persevere, it's improving slowly. At least now I'm less likely to have to throw away hours/days of design because I got into a mess.
As a Linux user, my options are slim, so I keep learning FreeCAD, and SCAD, but I'm always a little jealous when I watch a YouTube tutorial of how to do something that takes relative ease in tool X, but is an order of magnitude more complex to do in FreeCAD.
FreeCAD getting a benefactor that can propel it ahead would be huge; donations are great, but my measly donation is barely going to cover the cost of a bug fix.
I enjoy the act of technical drawing and 3d design. Downloading pre-existing models doesn't have the same "I did that" feeling. Especially after a long day at the coding mines, doing some shape manipulation is like brain yoga.
The biggest reason why I love freeCAD is how it's just there. All other cad software has long user agreements, log-ins, subscription tiers. The fact I can just install it and open and get to work somewhat makes up for the odd workflow. I learned AutoDesk Inventor when I was practically a child so I always reached for it when I could get a student license, but after that expired and the cad market started moving fast, I just went to freeCAD.
I don't want to do real work in a browser, I hate browsers. So on Linux its either freeCAD or wine+fusion360.
Right!
I have a cheap 3D printer. It took me over a year to decide that buying it wouldn't mean another white elephant gadget.
So I made myself a list of things I'd always be able to download and print if I never managed to learn CAD. I've barely printed any of them, because I can do my own things already.
God loves the OpenSCAD/code CAD devs I am sure, but it is not really the case that you can just "program" general objects, because real life things are not simple geometrical constructions; there's a lot of arbitrary organic design in them. A lot of compromises and tweaks and useful accommodations, that lead to some hellish maths (and if I was good at maths I'd have a maths degree, not a CS degree).
I decided I would push past the pain points of learning FreeCAD, and I have now become comfortable enough in it, and designed enough real things.
I am borderline religious about the impact the combination of FreeCAD, PrusaSlicer and a cheap 3D printer has had on my ability to reason about physical objects, and make things I have only before imagined. It's incredibly liberating: I am now someone who can make physical things.
Like you I also love that I don't have to think about costs or licences.
FreeCAD isn't perfect but it's not in the same "clearly left behind" category as GIMP. It's more like QGIS: somewhat idiosyncratic but actually quite powerful. It's made my life enormously better.
You basically made a list of reasons why I avoid it, its in a browser, you need a log-in, basically zero ownership of your designs on the free tier, with a jump to $1500/y for the "standard" tier. I know cad programs are difficult to make but damn they make it easy to not want to be their customer.
I typically just use the latest version from the arch repos and it's been smooth sailing.