The World Runs 20B Instances of Curl. Where's the Support?

The topic is a bit tiring at least. You can't provide something for free and then complain. And let's not assume the world is incapable of writing an alternative. Open source authors deserve praise for their work and skill. But they also get quite a bit of recognition for it. It's not like they're enslaved. It's still a pretty good deal, and my own side projects landed me every good job I ever had.

You can provide what you like for free. It's literally in the text of most OSS licenses: use at your own risk. The fact that large organisations are pointing their customers to the OSS project to answer their questions is a joke.

I'm glad your own side projects have helped you find good work, but you're hardly in the same position as curl here.

What is being offered: here's a cool program, use it as you like! What is given back: 10,000 users demanding personal 1 on 1 support and immediate attention from a solo developer, for free, at any time, at all time

If this solo developer doesn’t like it, they are free to change the license, start charging for support, or just tell everyone that they can use it at their own risk.