You’re looking at this as a one-sided transaction. The distinction between producers and consumers is not clear cut, especially if you consider only the subset of developers who submit patches.
In reality, unless they run their own handwritten OS, the roles are going to be reversed next week, where that maintainer benefits from the other person’s work (and salary as you say) through another piece of software. This is the premise of free software. Each contributes what they can, everyone benefits.
In reality, unless they run their own handwritten OS, the roles are going to be reversed next week, where that maintainer benefits from the other person’s work (and salary as you say) through another piece of software. This is the premise of free software. Each contributes what they can, everyone benefits.