"There's a very simple way to make that opinion count, you can hire the maintainer." I want to describe to you that this is very difficult - almost impossible.

"There's a very simple way to make that opinion count, you can hire the maintainer." I want to describe to you that this is very difficult - almost impossible. A long time ago I decided that I did, in fact, want my opinions on open source and free software to have more weight than a typical non-contributor and I have made dozens of valid, reasonable - even generous - offers to individuals and projects to advance certain design goals or feature requests - or even simple bug fixes. It's not that these offers (contract offers, bounties, straight up cash payments, sponsorship, etc.) were rejected - they are typically outright ignored. As in, radio silence. No response whatsoever. I know they got my message and I know they are ignoring it. I have some pop-psych / cultural analysis / personal anecdata as to why this is (almost always) the case ... I think you can easily sketch a caricature of someone who does something out of love or passion or as a personal challenge but has no way to connect that to expectations or deadlines, or any other personal involvement whatsoever. But whatever the explanation, be aware that your suggestion is not the magic bullet you think it is.