In a market, the loudest voices are the ones with the money. But in the open source market, money wasn't saying much at all. Now you don't have to curse the darkness for lack of some feature, driver, script, or whatever. You can put your money on the table with 1000 other people who have the same needs. And the work will get done.
Money exists as a unit of effort exchange.
It's amazing to think that open source today works on the barter system. There's no money involved. I scratch my own itch, as the saying goes. But that system breaks down if I don't have the time, the expertise, or the ability to commit because I'm expected to split my time between hundreds of projects. Cosourcing lets us move beyond the barter system.