> Almost all popular open-source software has paying patrons – companies/universities that give time to the individual to work on that open-source project while

> Almost all popular open-source software has paying patrons – companies/universities that give time to the individual to work on that open-source project while keeping them gainfully employed. Surely, it's the other way around. You are likely thinking on projects which are not just popular, but with a target audience so large that they are nearly-mainstream-media-level popular, or alternative, important enough to be necessary for large corporations' activities. For those you may be right, and even there I'm not sure.