That’s not what they said. Free software can be paid for, either via users or via subsidies. Nobody is suggesting that developers starve.

To be pragmatic here are ways free software can be monetized :

• get a salary from a company or institution that relies on free software
• ask for donations via e.g. liberapay.com or Patreon or OpenCollective
• get money per project via CrowdFunding platforms e.g. KickStarter or for hardware www.crowdsupply.com
• get subsidies directly, e.g. NLNet (International, no need to be European), or www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund or by being part of a consortium, e.g. public/private partnerships on a theme e.g. www.ciiic.nl/en/calls/learning-communities

I professionally do both, namely I get paid to develop free software but I also pay free software developers, e.g. gcompris.net via their www.patreon.com/animtim

I think it is important not to conflate free software with free of cost and indeed free of production. Free software developers need to play their bills but that does NOT have to be opposed to your freedom in using and modifying that software. By implying a false dichotomy by software being either proprietary or funded somehow you are in fact sadly promoting proprietary software, please do not do that.