Okay, sure, but rather than trying to solve a problem by throwing money at it (or worse, trying to solve it with government intervention), maybe it's better to think of other mitigations.

For example, maybe developers need to be made aware of potential psyops by attackers (the publicity surrounding this issue probably made some progress on that front).

He never mentioned about any financial problems, it was more about his mental health

And would mental health issues have kept him from working on xz if that had been part of his day job?

I’ve been in similar burnout situations, and the difference between work and side projects did not matter to my mental health. The money was not an issue, it was headspace and fatigue.