I miss the days when you could earn enough for rent with a part-time job and support the piracy ecosystem in your off-time.

Yeah. We created a culture encouraging people to monetize any and every aspect of our lives. We can't foster that, actively make cost of living worse, and not expect people to to follow suit. Especially on an entrepreneur site like YCombinator.

You want more people doing it for the love of the game? Make sure they don't need to count pennies to pay rent.