So the three options for him to keep developing that we know of are 1) Ads 2) Pay for a license or 3) Fundraising. He offers 1 and 2, and 3 is well known to not work, seriously nobody donates. Check out npm fund and how so little people used it that they just removed it.
If your only argument is “I deserve things that took a lot of time and effort for free” then you aren’t getting much sympathy from me.