this quite reminds of the openssl saga, but on a smaller scale, with single developer more or less responsible for world's encryption for decade.
it's a pity, it's a shame that companies who use FOSS benefit, but do not understand (or do, but ignore) the idea of FOSS, which is to give back to community. this also includes other FOSS companies, etc as everyone uses openssl, zlib and sqlite.
to base a project on FOSS requires that you contribute back. or pay back if you can. and when your business makes 1000$ then 1$ out of every 1000$ for the FOSS guy that made it possible is money worth spending, isn't it?
if it's true that VeraCrypt, the G company and others based work on this developer's efforts and forgot, for decade, to give back anything, well - it's well deserved to leave them staring at the blank repo. well deserved indeed, as they had plenty of time and resource to compensate the author while reaping benefits off his work. well done to choose the BSD license in this case.
all other companies building big-software based on hundreds opensource projects should rethink their strategies.
there is no free lunch, someone pays for it. and its a shame, when this someone is left alone to pay for his lunch, while hundreds benefit from it. maybe there should be the FOSS Church and at least make these people revered as saints.