I think you should make sure, before choosing a dependency (framework or otherwise) that it either has the level of support (free or paid) that you require, or that you can easily replace it with something else that does or that you can build in-house (in case the maintainer won't merge your patches).
If a dependency fail to satisfy that requirement, it means you cannot afford it, even though it's apparently free.
Now from your description, it seems like you are paying someone else decision of choosing a framework the company could not afford, which sucks (as any situation where you inherit someone's debt), but in any case it's hard to blame the framework maintainer for that poor choice.
I mean, if the framework maintainers spent a lot of time marketing the product as being more reliable and getting more maintenance than it in practice now seems to you, it's pretty easy to blame them... but it still doesn't get you anywhere.
If a dependency fail to satisfy that requirement, it means you cannot afford it, even though it's apparently free.
Now from your description, it seems like you are paying someone else decision of choosing a framework the company could not afford, which sucks (as any situation where you inherit someone's debt), but in any case it's hard to blame the framework maintainer for that poor choice.