majamee
So please let me know your experience and why it seems I hit a nerve?
I think its beaten to death now especially with DataDrake basically saying what I was going to. But I've had a cuppa and will try explain it to you without calling you any names.... I'll try at least.
I help the community look on my forums/reddit/irc history. I also have started maintaining some small insignificant packages for Solus (2 currently) with intentions to contribute more in this area. I work in IT as a systems administrator and have previously done web development work, come to think of it I actually have a open PR for the software center. Not entirely sure what that has to do with you not knowing what you're talking about in terms of "maintenance mode".
You "struck a nerve" because calling the work the developers do and continue to do "maintenance mode" is insulting, DataDrake said it himself. It also means the time invested by others without pay be they helping someone on the forums or helping with packages, submitting fixes, documentation, translations etc pointless if this were the case.
You realise maintenance mode for a distribution is death right? You move forward, or you die. Simple as that.