"He says he's made about $25,000 per year since 2001 — a fraction of what he could earn in private industry"
The developer of git-annex assistant was happy when he received $20,000 on Kickstarter and he said with this money he could dedicate his time on this project for a full year. [1]
Maybe he could also start a Kickstarter/Indiegogo etc campaign so that he could hire another full-time developer? If enough people find this additional workforce on this project worthwhile, it will be funded.
Cost of living varies widely. Having no dependents and living in an inexpensive place is great. Obviously, it's better for us to fund people who use the funds as efficiently as possible, but we can't demand that everyone's life circumstances be identical.
The developer of git-annex assistant was happy when he received $20,000 on Kickstarter and he said with this money he could dedicate his time on this project for a full year. [1]
Maybe he could also start a Kickstarter/Indiegogo etc campaign so that he could hire another full-time developer? If enough people find this additional workforce on this project worthwhile, it will be funded.
[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joeyh/git-annex-assista...