From a technical perspective, this isn't wrong. From a finance perspective... I don't want to argue that this is sane, but a lot of firms view software still a

From a technical perspective, this isn't wrong. From a finance perspective... I don't want to argue that this is sane, but a lot of firms view software still as a Capital Expenditure (CapEx), not Operational Expenditure (OpEx). CapEx is like buying a car, or buying a laptop. OpEx is like a taxi service, or monthly power bill. With CapEx, I generally can't get approval for payment until the product is fully delivered, and signed off. A lot of companies use agencies to do software work for them, and see an agency as a sort of credit card / insurance policy for getting the work done before they have to pay, and getting work done on a fixed-price scheme. A lot of times too, work has to come with like a 90-day warranty, and final payment won't be due until that period is up. For larger clients anyway. Yes, I like bounties... and we use a lot of open-source software, but I don't think anyone would want to get paid the same ways as agencies get paid. Likely we'd be better off just being able to donate.