This is only tangentially related to KiCad, but at least the Librem dev kit was designed with KiCad and people reading this forum may be interested in OSH and FLOSS. On Phoronix there’s an interesting interview of the former purism CTO. It doesn’t give a happy picture about all which happens in the FLOSS world. But it also shows that there are many individuals (and companies) who honestly don’t seek financial gain, only wellbeing of FLOSS/OSH.
Having worked for a start up with totally unrealistic ambitions, I would say the problems were nothing do with FLOSS world, but the commercial world of boot strapping a company. Basically, it involves a lot of lies - to employees, investors, potential customers, suppliers. This is known as “fake it until you make it”.
Many people who “believe in the mission” get ripped off, e.g. pay cuts, ridiculous hours, using own resources etc. There are always vultures circling who can spot inexperienced management - “fresh meat”. They will charge for services at twice the normal rate and make sure they get paid up front. They will tell you “it seems like a fantastic idea!”, but they don’t believe that.