I second @codewithcheese here. I am really sad about what is going on with the open source maintainers. So much of our modern machinery is created by them yet (almost) every company simply uses the software and gives nothing much in return.

There are impactful people in there and I have gradually started going back to these communities now. I wonder how we can create an system where small/medium businesses are directly aware of the empowerment through software and they want to financially contribute to the development. There are millions of small/medium businesses around the world, they are the backbone of most economies and are more directly involved in the social structure than unicorns. Start the conversations and you will find a way to bring the change you want to see.

One option is to find some open source projects your interested and engage on their slack or IRC.

Sounds like you're ready for academia!

They just shift the same profit mechanism to a different token; citations.