I can absolutely understand JJJ with his campaign: creating and maintaining something cool and useful in your free time then sharing it with others for FREE is really hard.

The first time I developed a WordPress plugin (it took me long), I was rewarded with the feeling that I was able to create it. The second time I felt them same way, I was happy to see it working. But man can't feed his family with only "happiness", so after I learnt enough (well, it's never enough :)) about WordPress, I started developing plugins and themes to others for money.

And at some point I felt I have to give back something to the WordPress community and I developed a plugin that relates to my hobby, football (soccer). Yep, "Soccer Info" is a FREE plugin that can be downloaded from WordPress.org

Trust me, it is hard to keep and maintain a FREE plugin and not just because you get few negative comments. Nope. The biggest problem and enemy is TIME. For example someone reports a bug and you know that you have to solve it because those people (the users) are counting on you, but you don't really have time for that as you need to work on the projects that pay your bills and feed your family. It's frustrating and there are times when you feel it would be better to abandon or remove the whole plugin.

Or you try another solution "crowdfunding", just like I am trying to do with my plugin at http://igg.me/at/soccer-info-2-0/x/9032264 (you may drop some bucks or share the link, thank you)
and of course just like JJJ does with the plugins passionate about.

I hope he will reach his goal and we (the BP, bbP and GP users) will see the next major versions soon.

Good luck!