Perhaps the situation would improve if it were easier/more normalised to offer to pay the core developer to fix the bug that affects you. If that were the case, it would boil down to put up or shut up.
This wouldn't be entirely without downside though, as there could be a risk that the project ends up getting steered by whoever has the most money, which may be at odds with what the broader community gets from the project. That's difficult to avoid whenever Open Source developers get paid, unfortunately. If it were limited to bug-fixes I think the risk would be slim. I'm not sure if any projects have tried this.
This wouldn't be entirely without downside though, as there could be a risk that the project ends up getting steered by whoever has the most money, which may be at odds with what the broader community gets from the project. That's difficult to avoid whenever Open Source developers get paid, unfortunately. If it were limited to bug-fixes I think the risk would be slim. I'm not sure if any projects have tried this.