It is a shame that it has gotten to this level. I raised this issue a while ago on the Foundation Chat as it seemed clear that this would come to a head when there are hard deadlines (Overwinter, Sapling) and such a large % of the network relies on this software and it is closed-source, supported only by a single developer and by donation.
My suggested solution at the time was to “throw some money at the issue” which isn’t necessarily elegant but was meant as a stop-gap measure and I echo @shawn in wishing @anon47418038 had made a grant proposal for ongoing support but hey ho.
I don’t think this is true. As per the proposal here Zcashd v1.0.15 and below into safe mode a few days before Overwinter activates · Issue #3328 · zcash/zcash · GitHub safe mode will be activated for older nodes so aren’t they just going to stop working as disablesafemode wasn’t in the config file by default? This is going to be a terrible user-experience but funds will be safe i.e. they are not transacting on the legacy chain and will be forced to upgrade before they can use their wallet (albeit they will have to work out what the problem is first).
There 100% needs to be an option for current WinZec users to upgrade to prior to Sapling albeit funding this directly just seems like kicking the can down the road. Hypothetically let’s say there was some funding would you be open to open-sourcing the project such that this cycle doesn’t keep repeating (if I understand Zcash4Win was released in that manner?)
This or as per @secparam strategy of a Foundation-supported wallet likely the only realistic long-term solutions.