One of the issues that we see is the speed at which WordPress is updated, coupled with the speed of updates and support provided for plugins. The problem is that most of the plugins are a hobby for the developer. Therefore, they do not have the time or money to support it entirely. WordPress updates are released that break parts of the plugin and the developer (at some point) gives up and the project becomes abandoned.

I am seeing more and more notices on plugin descriptions within the repository that state something like "I am no longer maintaining this plugin, if you would like to take it over let me know". But there are also so many other plugins where the developer has not replied to anyone in over a year. Even if the plugin has been updated recently, it may still not work due to a WordPress update.

This experience is not good for users, they use a few similar plugins to find the best one for them, settle on one and add all their data. Only then do they find that it does not work properly and they have to start from scratch. Naturally, this fills their database with junk data that they will never need again.

It is becoming a real pain to see so many plugins abandoned and most of them you have to install and test only to find they are abandoned.