Perhaps they put some effort into the GUI to establish a brand image of sorts before the Open Source Community got their hands on it, wouldn't you? They got Paid because they had the initiative to start it, that's how it works.Also, the amount they got paid is kind of representative of the amount of demand out there for an alternative to Facebook - So
"Facebook's so annoying to use. Let's make one that works like we ALL want!"
FTFY...
They announced they would release a semi-working version's code, and that's exactly what they did. Their "mission statement" has a large emphasis on security so i sincerely doubt they will allow another major release with a "Patched" backend. The open source community Is large enough and kind enough to contribute where they may have fallen short. If you want to get paid for helping, you may want to go start your own.