Dealing with customers is an endless nightmare and brings along potential legal obligations, not to mention whatever DRM scheme you'll need to implement to keep

Dealing with customers is an endless nightmare and brings along potential legal obligations, not to mention whatever DRM scheme you'll need to implement to keep anyone from using it without paying. Asking for donations is a completely different relationship. People who make nice little niche utilities in most cases aren't interested in getting bogged down in all of the hassle of requiring payment. But if you like the product and want to throw some money their way, they give you a way of doing that. As an aside, programmer is now one of the most common jobs in the US and there are plenty of programmers making $40k. It's not lucrative for everyone even if the median salary of HN users is six or seven figures.