I don't entirely disagree but I do think it would help if he could work on stuff full time. He has like 4 separate projects he's running in his spare time around a job

I don't think it's smart of him to take on that many separate things in his spare time, and I agree that building it closed source first isn't a great choice, but I have no agency over those choices other than to tell him I think he could be making better choices on Mastodon

Ultimately, I don't expect people who build foss stuff I want to be perfect, or make the choices I think would be most optimal, or to be the most capable developer in the room. I don't see anyone else building it, so it's his project and he can make choices I don't agree with. And I don't even really think it's an issue of dev competency; the pixelfed app was literally on its first release when it started getting attention. The biggest problem is that all of his projects are moving at the speed of molasses, because he has four of them and also a full time job.

I want all the things he's building to exist, and he's the one who stepped up to the plate, so what I can do is donate as I'm able, talk about it so others know he needs funding, and continue offering feedback on Mastodon when he's discussing stuff.

I don't even particularly like the guy, but I still wanna see his projects succeed