> to become mainstream requires a bucketload of UX design and user support work that no one in their right mind wants to take on for free as a hobbyist. There

> to become mainstream requires a bucketload of UX design and user support work that no one in their right mind wants to take on for free as a hobbyist. There are several open source communities with UX designers and user researchers in them such as KDE, Gnome, Krita, GIMP, Inkscape, Penpot, Godot, Open Street Map, etc. For smaller projects that just need one-off design help there's a job board at https://opensourcedesign.net https://opensourcedesign.net though I've seen challenges when developer-only projects start to collaborate with non-developers. I think you're more right about user support. Many people dehumanize tech support and for some reason users who don't pay for software seem to be significantly worse than average so I can understand why very few people are interested in supporting strangers for free. That's why FOSS support ends up being via forums or personal connections. In a forum no one is obligated to respond to rude or demanding requests and when there is a personal connection (family, friends, in-person user groups) people tend to be more polite and grateful.