In theory, yes. But that's not what I've observed thus far.

I think we're looking at it two different ways. You've decided to embed yourself in the minutiae of FOSS whereas it is important for it to be embedded everywhere and thus that propagates FOSS and its meritocracy however whenever a corporation, say LinkSys does that, they do so without adding any fixes, concerns or other finds into the mainstream and create a fork that benefits only themselves. Making money out in the open is quite hard - meaning that it's great to have an army of developers solve your problems yet many bigger corporations rarely give back.

But for how long? Many great projects with a lot of hope that started off promising simply die to lack of updates. I'll rather respect somebody that continues to support their endeavors or at least try to remain visible and drum up energy. Folks like Shuttleworth, Torvalds and even to a lesser extent Somasegar, all rallied behind projects that required many others to support their endeavors but they did so with a passion that made adding to the project feel like you were adding to the better not to the worse parts of the FOSS meritocracy.

Many other companies have benefited from this work and have contributed nothing (if anything) back.

Sure. It works from your view. But from a corporate down view, I just see a bunch of unpaid folks getting taken advantage of.

Allow me to simplify my statements and be brutally blunt: I meant these so-called experts that bury themselves into the FOSS environment and rarely add much more than snide remarks, contrarian beliefs and impose their point of view unto every single ****ing discussion and rarely add anything of worth, ever.

I'm tired of these so-called experts that bring nothing to the table but an opposing view because they want to see the world burn. They want to see everybody as miserable as they are. Tired of it doesn't even do justice to how I truly feel about this ever-growing sector that wants me to hear about how they never buy anything firsthand, how they're experts in all things but actually doing a damn thing.

Simply put - shut up, do something. Or shut the **** up. That is the group that adds nothing to the folks that are actually doing any work. Worse, they do absolutely nothing to point out that folks are doing great, inspired work that ends up being utilized without getting a credit by larger corporations.

Corruption is a semantic term that most want to surround. How about this, propose a better word, not a weirdly phrased adjustment that really says absolutely nothing.

Take it personal or not. I don't give a damn. But in the end, we all miss out - so taking it personal means nothing other than you're unable to break the egocentric trend and see the world for more than yourself.

That is the second part of why I disagree with the current iteration of FOSS meritocracy. It actually works, but how do you enforce corporation to give back? They take and take.

And if they take, they should pay (respect or money).