What a whole lot of people seem to want from LibreSSL is to behave in every little bit EXACTLY as OpenSSL does, even though OpenSSL itself is a complete and utter mess.
OpenSSL allowed developers to interfere with RNG, so LibreSSL must do that, too?
Well, you can't really go at improving and cleaning up the library if you have to keep all the old bugs and the whole crusty API around.
It's inconceivable to expect LibreSSL to be both better than OpenSSL, yet to have the exact same API and the exact same set of bugs and nuances as the original OpenSSL.
What they're trying to do is be a simple-enough replacement of OpenSSL for most modern software out there (possibly with some minimal patching of the outside software), and not a one-to-one drop-in-replacement for random edge cases.
Awesome! Another good test would be building pkgsrc on top of LibreSSL, with no signs of the original OpenSSL present.
So, they want him to take the time off for 18 months? How much are they willing to pay for such a vacation? Surely if they never intend to pay anything, then such an agreement is indeed excessive and completely unreasonable.
The major difference between bonds and bond traders is that the bonds will eventually mature.