[thwarted]

Coders expect to be paid for developing apps by the people/companies that want those apps. Coders who write code and then release it under an open source license are not expecting to be paid for it. Writers or photographers who produce and then post their stuff on-line, un-prompted, ARE creating it for free. If you want to get paid to write or take photographs, find someone who is willing it pay to have you write or pay to have you use a camera. This will require that someone actually want /your/ output.

Developers go to work and produce something for someone else, and in exchange get paid. Then they go home and work on their own stuff. Writers, too, can get a job where they write for someone who is willing to pay them, and then go home and write their own stuff. In most cases, the developers don't really like having to produce stuff for someone else, but that's how they pay the bills.

The developers seem to be more adept (in your analogy) at solving the problem: they find someone who wants to pay them BEFORE they produce the software (even shrinkwrap software or startups presumably have done some market research to find out if their output is attractive to potential buyers of said product). The writer or photographer who tries to find someone to buy their output AFTER it's already created is facing an uphill battle, mostly in marketing, trying to convince someone to buy their product rather than producing a product the market demands.

Developing software for someone else is like working in a portrait studio or photographing products for ads.