Witness earnings are low now yes. Which is why I would have voted to cover the costs of servers. A small amount for labor as well, maybe. But this is too big.

What will the rest of the year cost, a million? It will be worse than the Steemit, Inc dumping in the end.

Also, I don't know why but I get the feeling that the labor costs are just a nice profit, not a necessity. Maybe because the proposal was posted after the work was done? I don't know.

It would have been better to ask for the money before starting, that way, you would know if people would want to vote for a 63k proposal for improved image hosting.

I also know that you did more work than what was written in this post (I listened to the core dev meetings). I guess the rest can be free? Or another proposal will be posted?

And finally, of course I don't expect you to work for free. But the labor you and your devs put in the blockchain is an investment. Higher price means more witness earnings, a larger stake and more revenue from the exchange. If you don't believe that the price will rise in the future then let's give up now because all of this is unsustainable. The SPS will run out in the end.

Anyway, we can argue for days. In the end votes will speak for themselves, and I don't mind if you get funded. I just think it's too high of a labor cost.

Edit - about freedom, if I was him, I would 100% be working to pump my bags. Maybe he is invested in tons of coins and doesn't care. It all depends how important this stake is to him.