What I have been asking, how is Tupisdin getting the unlock codes? Is he working for htc, or does he have a calculator or something...
And i very much doubt you will get an answer.
I have no doubt he either works for HTC, or knows someone who does, like many others here who currently do or have in the past.
But the bottom line is, that he is able to sim unlock them, he charges for it which he then donates to xda-devs. if you do not want to pay, then don't. Wait until someone else creates a free version.
As for things having changed, maybe not so much. the number of people who donate or try and help is still tiny compared to the number of people who come here and leech, and flame, and ***** when they kill their device cos they didn't read the instructions properly. and sadly the number of people like this has increased dramatically over the last few years as these devices get more popular.
And besides, for most of the guys here who develop stuff (like Olipro, Cmonex, schaps and many others), they work damn hard so why the hell shouldn't they get a little something for it? Would you go to work and expect not to get paid??