I mostly agree about devs communicating more with users. This is, at least for this era, the trend. That's why most of the dev teams have own discord servers that allow more direct interactions.
Now, about XP12 upgrades, I think there is a misconception. Laminar promoted the idea of compatibility between XP11 and XP12 addons, that is not exactly the case. Update an (aircraft) addon from XP11 to a fully fledged XP12 one, a lot of changes are required, almost in every aspect of the aircraft, to the point that you can't maintain a common development branch for both X-Plane versions. That means a lot of additional hours of work.
In conclusion, if a developer provides a minimal patch for the aircraft "just works" in XP12, then free is the better option. But if we are talking for full XP12 standards aircraft, then a paid upgrade is the logical. Still though asking people for money, should come with a good communication of why that's the case, per addon. Free full fledged upgrades to XP12, should be considered as a gift from the devs to users.