After getting my first "tip" from my free game I knew the first thing I was going to do with the money... buy this zine!
I never thought that game devs who make small games *could* get support and should. Like you say, for devs, it's a classic dilemma of "I want my game to be free because I don't want to put my passion project behind a paywall" (hey alliteration!). But free games rarely reward you for the time and effort you spend.
Solution of tips/donations make sense and I hope more people could support indie devs!
Thank you for writing about this :)