I feel like what is really needed is a popular place where people can find out about open source hardware.

OSWHA's database is probably the closest I've seen.

People sell things on sites like Tindie (which also has closed source stuff mixed in) Things like hackernews/hackaday are great for getting the word out, but that's not a database that you can just navigate. Crowdsupply is similar in that it tells people about active crowdfunding campaigns, but browsing isn't organized and doesn't include old projects. GitHub has mostly software results.

If we could make it easy to find these things, then we MIGHT have fewer duplication of efforts, better quality, it wouldn't be limited top being used by techy people.

Projects who reward the contributors (including those who contribute no code but do things like answer questions for people, write docs, etc!) seem like they should rise to the top.