Altruism is alive and well in all aspects of society and software development is no exception. Good developers are often willing to spend some time and effort to build something and give it away for nothing. A great deal of our software infrastructure is built on such contributions.
But as a developer myself, I know that altruism only goes so far. There are many 'fun' tasks associated with making good software, but there are also many aspects that are quite unpleasant for the average developer. There is quite a bit of open source software out there with bugs, bad documentation, and bad design; simply because fixing those problems is a real hassle.
Some people are willing to dig in and do some of the dirty work for no pay, but the majority will take a pass. Nothing gets you out of bed on a cold day to go work in the trenches like a steady paycheck. If we are satisfied with the status-quo, then you are right and 'nothing needs to change'; but if you want stable software with good documentation and quick bug fixes, then some improvements need to happen.
But as a developer myself, I know that altruism only goes so far. There are many 'fun' tasks associated with making good software, but there are also many aspects that are quite unpleasant for the average developer. There is quite a bit of open source software out there with bugs, bad documentation, and bad design; simply because fixing those problems is a real hassle.
Some people are willing to dig in and do some of the dirty work for no pay, but the majority will take a pass. Nothing gets you out of bed on a cold day to go work in the trenches like a steady paycheck. If we are satisfied with the status-quo, then you are right and 'nothing needs to change'; but if you want stable software with good documentation and quick bug fixes, then some improvements need to happen.