I may be wrong, but I don't think Whilyam is talking about money as such, but about man-hours and resources, the non-negotiable cost of doing anything that isn't Paid Work. We none of us know exactly how much Paid Work Cyan has at the moment, but anything they do on Uru takes up time and energy, electricity and coffee, that comes out of the firm's expenses but is not bringing anything in. Donations are good, but they're not guaranteed income and they don't come with any of the benefits that Paid Work brings in terms of further business and so on. Cyan needs to survive as a company and so their emphasis needs to be on Paid Work or they'll stop getting it. That's how I read Whilyam's quote anyway.