Old projects and the free-software community

Most core contributors to projects already do far more than scratch their own itch - it is only occasional contributors which are mostly of that scratching variety. This isn't the issue. I think it is mostly a matter of resources and speed and efficiency - not enough ppl work on the apps or they don't collaborate. Open source projects with a company behind them often manage to get the resources (discourse, ownCloud) even though not always and that model has issues, too.