You seem to forget that he has almost always be paid for his contribution: * Merb / Rails - EngineYard * Sproutcore / Ember - Strobe (and via contract work)

I myself struggle with the concept of asking $25k to build what he wants to build. But at the end of the day what I think doesn't matter what I think or how many people disagree. If enough people agree with him and support him, then the project will happen. If you don't like the idea, just don't give your money. If you are worried this attitude becomes a trend then be active and release your stuff differently.

"I myself struggle with the concept of asking $25k to build what he wants to build."

Are you of the opinion that people should only be paid to do things that they don't want to do?

If Yehuda Katz' market value is too high to build this kind of thing without sponsorship, then maybe someone else can build it gratis and he can save his time and energy for paying work.

Nobody's stopping them. Why is Yehuda Katz working for people at large somehow better than him working for giant faceless companies?

Lots of companies hire people to work on open source projects. It is how most of it gets written. He could probably get a job where working on this is part of it in a heartbeat.

(not that I disagree with this project or method, I think he should do the same as what Google Appengine does with its installer - it is seriously awesome)

He did, actually. Much of the work he did on Merb and Rails 3 was generously funded by Engine Yard.

Though I'm quite thankful Engine Yard chose to fund his work, I'd categorize doing so as an investment than a generous act. Nothing wrong with either, of course.

I would certainly agree (especially his work on Merb, since they began offering commercial Merb support and such while he was doing that). The "generously" was partially true, partially facetious. :)