Volunteers. There is no confusion here, more people need to step up and volunteer to lead efforts like this.
While there is talk of pay – it’s for the food / water / shelter aspects of the codebase, without which no one would be here. For better or for worse, coding is the scarce resource.
Contributing by volunteering to take a role in guiding some aspect of the community on a regular basis is the most impactful thing can be done.
An honorarium could also be proposed for work like this over time.