[weq]

This! Open source can make your career, just as much as the Op says; it can break your back.

From the outset i would say that most people releasing OSS stuff wants it to be used in production. thats until you get the hungry corps looking for free support. IMO at that stage an OSS maintainer needs to start a consulting company and funnel everything into it to avoid the burn. if this guy was making 6 figures consulting for those same companies, i think the conversation was different.

Unfortunately knowing how to write software is not always compatible with self-marketing and has a keen business acumen.