Sorry I took my time to write back to you. I had to think about something there, on how to express myself
Of course the following expresses only my views, I cannot speak for others.

For most people doing kernel development this is an addicting hobby, but it's not our day job, it's not the thing we get paid for.
Thus, I look at parts which intrest me for personal reasons, things I can do and tweak to get the device perform the way I want and need it to behave. From time to time I hit some wall that proves to be too difficult to scale for me, at least at that moment. Or it might be I find something more intresting to hack at. At that time, I might well stop working at the current project and start doing something else.

Sometimes, I manage to do something even other people find useful, and that is wonderful. It makes me feel good to see people using my works, and it gives me good karma.
What I make and develop, are freely available to others to use, enjoy, extend and further develop under GPL.

If I accepted financial compensation/benefits from the work I am doing, it could lessen its meaning as a hobby and increase its meaning as work. Thus I would be obliged to work towards the goals I was rewarded for, and it would greatly reduce the freedom I like in my development.

Rather than financial support, I would like to see you too take part in development, learning the skills to create beautiful working software
This community is community of developers, we welcome people willing to learn our arts and are happy to share our learnings.