the problem, in my opinion, introduced by the so-called full-time open source developers (making money via contributions) is the distortion in how free & open source software should be organized. no one should have a full-time job maintaining an open source software, on their own. they should be doing in through a user-company. see the ruby and rails core team/structure for example. they all work full-time at companies with significant investment/commitment to the framework. they’re paid by these companies not randos paying money into some opencollective, patreon, &c.
the javascript ecosystem sets and perpetuates a bad example here. it has sometimes even lead to accusations of leeching (see babel) where a ‘full-time’ maintainer who has honed the evil art of extortion refuses to kickback to the original creator-inventor or share proportionally with all contributors. or so the story goes.
it’s imperative that we save open source from these evils. github sponsor, patreon, opencollective, tidelift, npm fund hurt, rather than help, the cause. they’re the sort of simple & straightforward ideas that make sense to simple-minded people, but eventually break under the messy rules and expectations of reality. if rails has succeeded without begging for money (even without starting a foundation) then, of course, their approach to free & open source software should be promoted.