The problem isn't the cost, nor the quality. It's the un-announced, and under-informed/explained changes. Growl at least seems to have said they are abandoning free software and going pay-only (took a lot of digging to find a neoffice post claiming the same). Except elsewhere in this topic, it is said they are still releasing the source, etc, so maybe that wasn't their intent.
I can't consider it paying for support, especially with neooffice. I don't think they want to offer support to non-corporate, see the price of admission to the forum.