Originally Posted by
MeAndUnique
There's a balancing act for sure. Extension fragmentation comes with downsides, some of which can be more easily mitigated than others. This first is that extensions require manual updating, so more extensions means more work for end users to keep em up to date. The second is that of common infrastructure: related features often use the same code under the hood, so fragmenting the features into distinct extensions requires duplicating that code as well as increasing its complexity so that it doesn't interfere with itself in each fragment. This third is that while each extension on its own may be simpler and less likely to conflict, more extensions means more work to identify where the conflict is coming from.
As for free vs paid... On behalf of myself and many of the free extension developers here on the forums, I'm so very sorry that clearly we have misunderstood the arrangement. I for one will be sure to be less responsive on updates, as is expected of me :p (completely joking of course). In all seriousness, I have absolutely no ill will toward those who wish to be paid for their hard work. And I admit it does sting at least a bit that it is assumed I, or any developer, would be less serious about my work because I have decided I would like to share it as a gift to the community.
