Gotta pay the rent somehow. There has to be enough money in it somewhere for people to pay the rent so they can put the time in, or it doesn't happen.

of course. that's the point. what matters is that there still is enough money in it that enables some people to make a living of it. and that's great. since we are discussing a decline, people no longer being able to make a living are the first casualties. being able to do get paid for that work is a sign of health.

as someone involved with Free Software and Open Source, i can sympathize. the number of people who can get paid while at the same time doing it for the love of it is very small. i love to work on FOSS too, but i can't afford to do it without getting paid.

Eh… seems to me that in a lot of scenes, “volunteer”-vs-“paid” is something of a spectrum…

naturally. as in any space that has people doing it for love but also has people paying to participate. in FOSS too. see also my other comment...