That’s because the financial accounts are also distributed. lemmy.world is separate to lemmy.ml and every other instance, which is also separate to the core development project. Granted, the lemmy.ml admin are the core devs, and there are other users who span across borders, but it’s possible for the instance people are faced with (eg lemmy.world) getting all the donations while the core back end development project does not.
That’s because the financial accounts are also distributed. lemmy.world is separate to lemmy.ml and every other instance, which is also separate to the core development project. Granted, the lemmy.ml admin are the core devs, and there are other users who span across borders, but it’s possible for the instance people are faced with (eg lemmy.world) getting all the donations while the core back end development project does not.