I purchased this desk (Amazon.com) for $286 (with a Prime membership).

I wanted to get a relatively inexpensive standing desk to see how I'd like it. I've been using the desk for two months now and love it. I'm sure it doesn't have all the adjustments more expensive desks have but I feel very comfortable working all day.

It took almost two weeks to adjust to standing all day long, but now I cannot imagine not working at a standing desk. I think part of the aforementioned comfort is due to all the movements my body is now making. I do find myself unconsciously stepping back, moving my arms around and other movements that are recommended periodically while sitting all day. I even find myself swaying side to side while I'm thinking through a process and stop as I continue to type away.

The improvement in how my back and shoulders feel is great.

What you said about the caps lock key, reminded me of this keyboard: "Do you think the Caps Lock key is pointless, and would be more useful as Ctrl?"

According to a Wikipedia article:

Polar Star has a variety of missions while operating in polar regions. During Antarctic deployments, the primary missions include breaking a channel through the sea ice to resupply the McMurdo Research Station in the Ross Sea. Resupply ships use the channel to bring food, fuel, and other goods to make it through another winter. In addition to these duties, Polar Star also serves as a scientific research platform with five laboratories and accommodations for up to 20 scientists. The "J"-shaped cranes and work areas near the stern and port side of ship give scientists the capability to do at-sea studies in the fields of geology, vulcanology, oceanography, sea-ice physics and other disciplines.

There was a keynote done by Herb Sutter this past September and at roughly the 57 minute mark of his presentation Keynote: Herb Sutter - One C++ he shows a 15 LOC example of numbers being input and then output sorted. He then said, "We need to get past the VT100 era." He continued saying that the standard C++ program cannot even exercise the abilities of the VT100 which has underscore and bold, etc. Pure, portable C++ code cannot even drive a 1970s era VT100.

If you continue watching you'll see the point Herb is trying to make and that point may help explain why they are looking to do this.

If it is open source, then at least you can recompile and/or port to a new OS.

The OP says, "I can't code in any meaningful way, nor do I aspire to"

You have the option of paying someone to fix a problem.

The OP says, "I could easily pay for a supported version of icewm, but I can't personally pay someone enough to keep it alive."

You have none of those options if the closed-source producer of a package arbitrarily decides to drop it.

What you've written is true, there are more options for open source projects. However, exercising those options just may not be feasible, as the OP points out in this particular case. If resources for continued development cannot be found, the open source project is effectively just as dead.