People in academia are notoriously disconnected from real software development, so I wouldn't use them as an example of what to do or not do.

You can be judicious with your time without avoiding any inconvenience to accomplishing a goal. Inconvenience is how you find motivation and learn new things. For 50c a day you're robbing yourself of valuable knowledge and bettering open ecosystems that are themselves fulfilling ends. If you don't put a value on learning or contributing back then I don't see why'd you'd want to be in this profession in the first place.