Well, I first downloaded Growl on my Powerbook in 2005, probably before they even had a Donate button on the site. I don't know exactly when they added update notifications, but I just started using those to keep up with updates instead of visiting the web site. I'm sure I noticed at some point that they were asking for donations, and I'm not saying I donate to every FOSS project that puts up a button, but I do donate to many, and Growl would have been one of them if they were asking for the donations more prominently.

I am *all* for developers begging loudly for support, and even for choosing to make their apps pay only if they want to, but the fact that the Growl team chose to use the App Store as their only distribution channel was a significant negative for me. If 10.8 wasn't getting its own notification thing, I'd probably have given in at some point, but my policy right now is to always choose the non-MAS purchase option when possible, and if it's not, try to find another app I'm happy with.