I'm curious if Val has seriously considered crowdfunding to continue the mod? I'm certain it's been an idea, but there are barriers: would FunPimps consider that to be profiting from their work? I don't even know how Valve handles paid mods these days, but even the traffic from Google and being hosted on Nexusmods would likely generate enough revenue.

I don't have much current knowledge about all the other factors in going from totally free to quasi-commercial (via whatever revenue source), but it seems the popularity of Valmod, along with the increasing amount of work needed to make it great, call for a particular opportunity to let those of us who really enjoy it to contribute to it's future.