I would *love* to be able to write code for important projects for free if I had some way to pay the bills without charging for my labor. As it stands I'm not independently wealthy nor do I have any rich relatives that will be leaving me a fortune when they pass so I have to require money for my time. I wish that wasn't the case, but that's the way things work atm so I have to abide.
Discussion
Charging for you labor is the only signal you have to know if your time is well spent or not. Working for no pay is a vanity.. Not a "bad" one per se .. But there's no way to be sure it is the best use of your time, or that it's providing the most value to the world.
Code if not information and can be obfuscated/bundled. Sometimes oss can make sense on generic complnents to have peer review.