Regarding funding development, the ideal long term solution is a situation in which the bigger economic picture is such that devs work on projects they support, and others do other work on those projects they support, according to their area of expertise. Putting too much emphasis on funding development is asking for shitcoins. On the other hand though, the market is not there yet and it is still necessary to pay people to work on some coins.

Regarding decentralized exchanges, it is sort of like if you have NASA develop a moon lander but they cannot figure out how to package cereal for the astronauts to eat. Should it go in round boxes? Square boxes? Tupperware? Maybe a university is needed to study the issue.

A simple program that downloads blockchains and creates the ability for people to commit certain coins for a certain period of time to trade for a specific amount of another currency, if another party wants, is not complicated. My guess is that the focus is on bells and whistles, or making a profit, rather than functionality. Blaketrader did everything a decentralized exchange needs to do, except make a pretty website.