There is still value in unmaintained work. As a somewhat exaggerated example, look at academia: researchers build upon each other's work all the time, arguably

There is still value in unmaintained work. As a somewhat exaggerated example, look at academia: researchers build upon each other's work all the time, arguably more often than they build upon their own work. We don't want a world where people stop publishing work just because other people expect them to continue working on it.