I think it's worth noting that it doesn't seem like the author here sees it quite the same way as you do. Burnout is obviously bad, but it also seems to me that he genuinely enjoys writing open source software, so I guess that enjoyment (plus some "opportunities" he got) is the gain.
This is quite similar situation when many idealist engineers grow, often unwillingly, into politics, management or C*O level - someday the coding fun ends and the not so fun business work takes over.
