I don't know Debian's specific history, but having participated in volunteer organizations, getting everyone to agree on how to spend money can be tricky.

Personally I'd love to be making more open source contributions as well, and I've been thinking off and on about taking a sabbatical to make time for it, though that probably won't happen.

I might be able to help find dev work for you that doesn't involve technical interviews, though it may not necessarily be a "job".