Depending on donations is almost always tenuous, especially if it's not anchored by big donors (and, often, even then).

There's even a school of thought that the existence of things like Patreon for funding open source development is actively harmful insofar as it can create the illusion that it's a viable funding mechanism for sustainable open source development when it really isn't.

As Vitalik and other people doing social-coordination research keep arguing - it's a matter of coordination and not of anybody being greedy. The feeling that your little donation means little is what keeps the whole swarm of users from donating.

This article makes a good argument to the same: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-in...

It seems like he lives in Mumbai, which makes his $688 equivalent to about $2,805 in SF. Still low, but not as bad.