I never saw this thread and I think I may be the one that key Blender people should read first.
I tried to give Blender a chance like 3 times in the past few years, I even gave money 2 times for the foundation, but it always ended up the same way. Giving it up and hoping it would become better later.
I personally (a pro user) will use and fund blender when:
- the area of the interface will have tabs (one editor per panel is a total workflow bottleneck) and creating/deleting areas/tabs with be done by an icon or a right click menu
- the axis orientation will match the industry standard (Maya and more - for modeling and rigging)
- the viewport and the outliner will be in sync
- the outliner selection will work the same way as any file explorer in the world… including that clicking in the void deselects… seriously
- the basics shortcuts will match the industry standards (Q WER by example, tab for creating a new node, left click selection by default (even this obvious basic universal detail took like 5 year of discussion to be done), left click shift ctrl alt ZBrush navigation hotkeys for scultping)
- the properties editor will not be shared for completely unrelated concepts (tools settings, scene settings, item settings are supposed to be different types of editors… consistency in the structure is important)
- the gizmos will behave la like maya ones, and not forcing to apply the change right after the hotkey is pressed
- the linear workflow will be default and better made
- the render pass setup nodal (I hope the project that has the name everything nodes means -everything- literally and not -most of- so Blender can be used like Katana from Foundry)
… - …basically when it will match the behavior of the industry standards, to FIT into the (bigger and more important than Blender) software environment of what is already leading and established.
Because this annoying manner of doing things always differently, and alone, it leads nowhere.
You say regularly the foundation funding is so low and you need more developers, but you literally reject and discourage 80 percent of the CGI community (and 99 percent of the pro one) by keeping doing the things your own (bad) way and refusing to go standard.
Yeah Autodesk sells softwares way too expensive and far from perfect, yet people/studio with big money give the money to them… Why, because they are what serious cgi artists are working with. Because when you get standard, it binds people together in a team way more efficiently.
Not being mean here, just exposing the truth guys.