I believe you are talking about the distinction between "open" and "closed", not between "commercial" and "voluntary". There are commercial open projects just as well as there are voluntary or hobbyist closed ones. Those two things are not necessarily connected, although I agree with you that they often are, if indirectly.

We could talk about it for ages (again!) but in my experience commercial projects beat hobbyist any time and in pretty much every aspect: functionality, usability, code quality, stability, longevity... all except ideology . Open or not plays a secondary role.

BTW, I am yet to be convinced that modRana would really suffer the way you describe. Maybe your relationship to it would suffer but not necessarily the product itself. You are the only contributor at the moment, despite it being open, so openness has not benefited it in any way other than giving you a good feeling. But that is digressing even more into OT.

Thank you reminding me. It has been years since I last contributed, mostly because I do not use modRana the way I used to. I sent you a small contribution now. Tiny in absolute terms but that is about as much as I can afford.