Reputation has some value. If the author tries and make a new product, perhaps some people will be more inclined to try it with the belief that they won't be left out to dry if it fails like most other products.
People also seem to forget that your reputation inside of your own head matters for a lot of people. People have different ways to frame or reframe past failures, and to get past them.
Besides, begrudging people time spent on community sounds like something your last shitty manager would do. Can’t tell if GP is shitty manager material or has Stockholm Syndrome from them. Odds favor the latter.
There is a comedy (romcom?) where a lawyer is explaining some terrible thing to the main characters and the woman looks at him in disgust and says, “how do you sleep at night?” The antagonist takes the question literally, and cheerfully answers her with, “white noise machine!”
