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I'm just going to say it, I really don't like the "how do we make OSS sustainable" framing. OSS is already sustainable. The only thing not sustainable is users expecting a free lunch (support, LTS, bug fixes, ...). As a user, you are responsible for your OSS usage. Fork/patch if you need to.

OSS doesn't seem very sustainable for devs who don't do it on the side from their generous day job, or AS their day job. It's certainly nowhere near as lucrative as an average full-time SWE position for most maintainers - it's mostly synonymous with "volunteer" for people with less exceptional luck.

The only assumption I'm consciously making was to expand the word sustainable to mean "sustainable to work on while needing regular food and housing". Not whether the code or project would experience longevity. Since if maintainers can't make ends meet, it's probably doomed in the long term.

Devs should make ends meet either by having an employer or a business model. If a dev wants to work on something for fun on the side, and push it out, that also is fine. They can immediately abandon it. If the code is useful to someone, that someone can fork / take over maintenance.