We 100% agree. I was very vocal about big games with tenure, not being self profitable and relying on DHF funds for life support.
While building a very sophisticated offering for free, for everyone to use, for free as well, and somehow, I'll find a way to make it pay for itself, but it would not be by proposal. It's a business, not a socialist factory the people should have to pay for, nor do I want to be beholden to the community, if it say... goes down for 9 hours on a wednesday at 2am. Etc.
What you wrote in your comment above this, is exactly how I also preach it. But the if it stops working part I would leave out, because there is probably more to that story. If the tool stops working, eh, I paid nothing for it (unless I did, then we have a different story) but if it stops working but other things start working or other things are still being done, eh... I dunno man, I dunno, lots more to it than - the free thing they made for you isnt around anymore, which can happen for 1000 reasons, from chain code changes, to their software platforms changing (php 7 to php 8 broke 1000s of php sites a few years ago etc)
I cant say a tool breaking is a deal beaker emphatically. But otherwise, about funding things on your own? HEAR HEAR! I wrote a whole manifesto about it just this week. :)
The vote is the payment. That's why I grow my HP, it's an investment. The votes a witness receives for their “free” applications are forms of payment. Of course if it stops working a few hours nothing happens, but if it's months or definitive, the votes that supported it should be withdrawn, because that's what they were given for.
Should we continue to support a witness for what it did in the past, if in the present it is not doing anything? The best thing about Hive is that there is no election every 4 years and we can vote at any time.
That's all reasonable with this additional set of guidelines for it clarified.