Comment by WorldMaker

> what is monetized (beyond like a tip jar situation where you get some coffee money every once in a while) is primarily sponsored by enterprise users, support license sales, or through grants, or something like that

All of those examples are the "direct user engagement" in question. No one tips a tip jar that they don't see. Enterprise users don't sponsor projects or buy licenses when they don't know they are using projects they should sponsor or buy a better license.

If an LLM is automating your `npm install` you probably don't see the funding requests. Are you running `npm fund` in your spare time?

If an LLM is automating your need to lookup library documentation you probably don't see that the library's own documentation has a Ko-Fi link or GitHub Sponsors request. Would you check library websites and GitHub repos on your own for such things without the need to read their documentation?