First and foremost, thank you Cathal for jumping into a sticking with what is always going to be an awkward conversation.
I think Shai's most recent post is a pivotal one. Most people using DNN aren't developers and I hear you when you say DNN Corp have invested a lot in the development of the platform - that's been clearly evident over the years (particularly the early years!). But the problem is you don't have the thriving community of developers you once had - I don't see that changing.
Just look at the modules being created and marketed on the store, they'll mainly wedged into the same types of modules and there's no diversity, no meat to most of them. I mean how many social button modules, image sliders and article/news/blog options do we need?
Shai's point is the best modules and developers have been absorbed int the DNN machine and there aren't any alternatives available. Active Social is gone. UrlMaster is gone. ActiveForums is a broken shell of what it was/can be. The only reason DMX is still around is because you already bought the other, competing module (and that's gone too). And who is going to start from scratch and develop a competing Social suite of modules or a Forum for that matter? That wouldn't be for the faint of heart nor should it be undertaken by a single developer who then gets married, has a kids and abandons the project.
DNN Corp needs to (somehow) encourage new development blood into the community and that will only likely come about if there is some money to be made creating modules. How about creating a Community voice type module where you can post and vote on needed functionality/modules, have developers bid on it and allow the community to donate or set a bounty for a developer or a team to do the development? All source created should be publicly available and free (or made available to those that contribute) - ala kickstarter. You can also seek out corporate sponsors for some of these modules (or some of the codeplex modules languishing dormant).
All I can say is I haven't seen a decent new module come out for DNN in the store in ages and DNN Corp has cherry picked the best modules and talent and effectively sealed the door behind them. That may not be there intention, but that's how it feels to me (and others it would seem to). Think the gap can be closed pretty quickly and effectively with a little effort from the mothership, but without affordable, well designed and functional modules mad available, then the platform will die.
I hope you all have a good weekend. TJ.