Yes, that's what happens when users don't support the platform. With Lemmy, there's an unspoken convention that admins make their site available to users with the same stability and performance as the big names but without any of the bad parts like tracking or ads, and the users donate to keep it that way. The PornLemmy team has done its part, but out of the 300,000 users only a single digit have shown support, so it is a you reap what you sow situation.

I'll update it to 0.19, but it won't be very soon. (most likely after the holidays)

saying “donations aren’t enough to purchase my time” indicates a whole other motivation that’s inherently counter productive to the platform IMHO.

I’m sure you have your reasons, but the post is kinda snobby about it.

Here's a lightbulb moment: stuff costs money and time, even if it's on the internet. Whatever you get for free isn't free - either you pay to get something from a provider, or the provider makes money off you in some way. I don't want to go the second route, and the 250k visitors have voted with their wallets so the first route is closed. Do you feel in some way entitled to my and PL's team time and resources? Have you contributed in any way to PL, financially or otherwise, so you can have a little say of its future? Or is this a "Entertain me, peasants" mentality?