I think a lot of maintainers just aren't asking for them with any sort of clarity because it's uncomfortable and you're kinda putting yourself out there. It seems pretty common that you kinda have to go look for ways of funding a project, and it's like buried in the back of the website somewhere.
Willingness to donate also seems to really depend on the type of project. It appears easier to get institutional support, or individual "whale" donations, if your ambitions are a bit loftier than if you're building small individual widgets or libraries that do one thing well.
I think people are perhaps more willing to pay for what a thing might become than what it is today, when it's more like an investment than a payment for goods delivered.
I think it shows exactly what kind of people FOSS users are. Big on talking about their freedoms and rights and how they're oppressed and victims of everybody else and everything else. But in reality they just want free stuff.
Small time developers should come over to the Mac side of things, where users are happy to pay a fair price for apps of any size, and especially boutique apps. That's how I as a user respect the developer: by paying for his work.
