Yeah it’s definitely not just a money thing. Some projects and communities like Gimp have been historically dismissive of design as a concept. Where as Blender has not despite starting in a bad place design wise. It’s come so far.

Gimp needs a philosophy change more than anything but it will never happen with half the community screaming “it’s just different” anytime someone has valid criticisms. Design literacy is as real as code literacy. Thankfully there seems to be lots of other graphic projects these days that might fill the void.