Where did I suggest "charging boutique prices for OS4 and its hardware?" I didn't use those words anywhere, nor did I imply it.
I'm simply pointing out that money could in fact help... if you found a suitable source of funds and used it for full-time "focused development with well thought out priorities." Where exactly you get those funds from is beside the point.
Hans
My point is that there won't be any funding sizable enough to sustain one's lifestyle let alone enough revenue to create a sustainable business when it comes to the Amiga and its legacy. Hyperion has been on life support for years. And even the Vampire finds its appeal limited to original Amiga enthusiasts so there's no market to be had beyond those folks who have already owned classic Amigas and look to replace or enhance their aging systems. To believe that Amigas will somehow go mainstream (classic or NG) in the future and support businesses with programmers writing new and useful apps is simply delusional. The Amiga is dead, both the 68K and PPC varieties. So all this talk about people needing to pay up and support Amiga programmers and businesses is a bit ridiculous. You'll have about the same level of success convincing people to pay for apps being written for MS-DOS.
As for money helping, I'd counter that the money would be there if there were compelling products that people actually wanted to buy. Delivery dates missed by years and broken promises doesn't instill consumer confidence, so prospective buyers take their money elsewhere. Yes, I'm talking about device drivers, office suites, multi-user security, modern web browsers that support SSL, SMP, 64-bit support, etc....until OS4 steps into the 21st century its user base will continue to shrink to where even the fanatics here won't buy it anymore.