You're not wrong, but if we've all collectively decided that companies should be patrons then I think we've made a mistake.

These people are only one reorg away from losing their income, Mr. lz4/zstd should be able to focus on his work without such fears, so great is his contribution to our field.

Yeah it's wildly off the wall how hard it is for enoromously valuable critical people doing amazing things to get support for themselves & their work.

That the direct-corporate-patronage/semi-employeeship model is so prevailing is a sign of brokenness. We need more, collectively, to have a health of our technical ecosystem.

Having these corps willing to hire great folk & have them keep hacking is still often a good option, often. "Create more vue than you capture" is easy to back/do when it's so clear who is out there creating mad value.