Today we treat work by a professional as being of higher standard than an amateur. A pro footballer clearly plays better than someone in an amateur league.

But it was not always so.

In recent history "professional" indicated that the task was bounded by time, and thus constrained in quality. An amateur building say a clock could take unbounded time, and hence create a superior product whereas a professional had to sell the clock, so it had to be produced in affordable time.

John Harrison starts life as a carpenter, making some clocks on the side as a hobby, interested more in perfecting the concept of clock than selling clocks for money. (although he had a prize in sight for inventing an accurate nautical clock.)

Despite making only a handful of clocks in his life, he's credited as being the most important clock maker ever.

Thus it is with OSS. Given the lack of monetary benefit, the benefits of writing it have to be elsewhere. In the satisfaction of a job done well. In the beauty and elegance of the code. The timeless perfection.

Or the idea that OSS presence will look good on your CV and held get you that job. In which case just throw stuff at Github to make a "portfolio". Never to be looked at again.

I think it's safe to say that the majority of OSS is the later, but we are all better off for the fraction that is the former.