There are many reasons why I use open source, but far and away one of the biggest reasons is simply the power it gives you as a user. I know it’s a cliche but if there's a problem you want fixed, you really can go and fix it, and everyone else benefits. Once you have a full community, this becomes extremely powerful.
The thing is, though, I really only work on things in a more selfish manner. For example, I’ve been contributing a bit to a very cool project called Kaitai Struct. But as cool as it is, I’m contributing for myself, on things I personally care about.
If you work at a company and you are bickering with open source maintainers, you’re really missing the point of open source. If it’s costing you money, then it was making you money. Give a tiny bit of effort back, and you benefit yourself and incidentally everyone else too. It’s a win-win, and you won’t get blocked on Twitter. If you/your company genuinely can’t spare the expense of spending a few engineer hours a week on FOSS, but also can’t afford to buy support contracts or pay for commercial software, that really seems like a problem, doesn’t it?
Disclaimer: I probably do not do enough open source work to really speak with authority. If you want to judge for yourself, I am jchv on Github.