Ah okay. Looks like you don't know what words mean.
Imagine you built a big sandcastle and asked a friend to help. Your friend helped a lot but you only gave them a tiny cookie as a thank you because they liked your idea so much. This is very mean and unfair because you're taking advantage of your friend’s feelings and hard work without giving them what they really deserve. This kind of behaviour is called exploitation and it's not nice at all.
Unfortunately I don't have crayons to make it more visual.
I know what words mean, but you're imagining words that don't exist.
> This is very mean and unfair because you're taking advantage of your friend’s feelings and hard work without giving them what they really deserve.
The motivation for the friend's altruism is, in fact, not in evidence. Nor is there evidence that they didn't know they were being underpaid, or didn't know the situation was unclear.
There are many reasons why it might be rational for a developer with full knowledge of the situation to accept low pay to make sure something happens, when it otherwise might not happen for no pay.
And there are situations where something has a truly unexpected upside.
The nasty accusations are that:
1) this is, specifically, "preying on low self-esteem". Where is this in evidence?
2) the developer has "impostor syndrome". Again, where is that in evidence?
You can use your big words if you like. But you are making an accusation that is supported only by your projection (perhaps of your own bad experiences?) onto it.
(I've done this kind of work. Once or twice when younger I would suggest impostor syndrome may have played a part, for sure. But in recent years I have done great work for low pay simply because one specific outcome was a social good I wanted to see happen, and I couldn't have done the work without some compensation. Had that work produced an additional financial windfall or escaped the MVP stage, I would have been there to profit from it. It didn't, for reasons I have learned from. But the social good exists nonetheless.)
Sorry you don't have crayons; they are an underrated device for the development of your evidently-pre-adult brain, and they are just plain fun! Put them on your wish list for Father Christmas.
Imagine you built a big sandcastle and asked a friend to help. Your friend helped a lot but you only gave them a tiny cookie as a thank you because they liked your idea so much. This is very mean and unfair because you're taking advantage of your friend’s feelings and hard work without giving them what they really deserve. This kind of behaviour is called exploitation and it's not nice at all.
Unfortunately I don't have crayons to make it more visual.