The author (and his commenters) have clearly never worked on any open source project. There is plenty of ego to be had for things like webcam drivers. Plus, if you have that webcam, it goes from non-working to working, and you can share that with everyone else in the world. Pretty fun.

Thinking about all the software I use regularly, I know pretty much all the authors. Some of them I have even met in person, and they have gotten free beer as a result.

I guess if you are outside the community, it doesn't seem very exciting, but if you are in the community, it is exciting. Kind of the opposite of high school cliques...