I've definitely kind of botched helping define this culture by trying to avoid repetitive asks or taking on tasks for people and the ecosystem piecemeal for no piece. For many years I've been trying to push some dapps to focus on distribution and g2m, to try to pick up gaps where things aren't being done so DHF could just do whatever it was going to do, and have been actively trying to recruit groups to make proposals for smaller amounts or for non dev tasks, because I have never really loved the idea of a not-foundation-equivalent taking the place of the DHF just because everyone's scared of using the actual DHF. In the end, the culture is what the culture is, and it's very split in half on who wants to see someone put a ton of effort in first, and who wants only tech deliverables defined for payment up front, and the end result of both is now generally unhappiness with what's come from the DHF previously and a real fear for what could come in the future. There's no arguing with that valid feeling in today's crypto world and market regardless of what side of the fence you land on. Small businesses and projects see the current and past blood drawn over discussion around funding and have been terrified for a long time to take a chance on asking, and I think that's an awful shame.
RE: Proposal: Ecosystem Operations, Bizdev and Growth Retrospective