Thanks for sharing your thoughts @skyl. I’m not sure its everything, but I think a hint of truth exists. Looking back, some of my thoughts seem relevant.
For the record I support the dev fund, but in a smaller amount over time. Folks wishing to innovate should be paying less not more taxes in my mind, but perhaps I too am missing something obvious? Maybe all this red tape isn’t by accident, not sure. 
Are lawyers and accountants the real winners these days? 
I’ve shared this with some friends in DMs, but it also deserves the public visibility.
Paying Uncle Sam 20-25% (as taxes) of all of the value of ~20% worth of the first 4-6 years of ZEC Block Rewards isn’t exactly what would be called cypherpunk (re: the original mailing list)
In an ideal world, how do any of you imagine that Zcash could be thriving, rather than fighting for survival?
Do you believe that we’ve been helped more or harmed by the corporatization (in the USA) of the big 2 development orgs?
Have we sacrificed too many of our cypherpunk principles, in favor of corporate comforts?