Orygin

Now I’m wondering, does the designer bear the cost of wafer yield, or the manufacturer?
Like do I pay for X amount of wafers and pray it’s got a good yield, or do I pay for Y amount of working chips and the manufacturer prays instead?

I feel like the manufacturer has the most impact on yield, but probably the contract provides an estimate for a specific process

Indeed it is technically possible to donate, but like you said, they are really not making it easy nor do they depend on it for survival.
Money corrupts and makes aligning user needs and profitability quite difficult, as we see with Plex now

Jellyfin refuses donations so even if I (not the one you’re responding to) wanted to, I would not be able to.