My impression from the article was, The Onion bid contained both a monetary sum, and partial debt relief. The total value then - the sum + the debt relief - was higher, and that’s how it won. So, it wasn’t just the victims’ backing weighing in, they actually put money on it.

I’m sure removing these maintainers would be of great help to the Ukrainian war effort…

More seriously: We need to help Ukraine more. But this doesn’t do that. It just hurts a bunch of people (both the maintainers, and the people using their code) for no benefit whatsoever.

What if you arrive early, didn’t do online check-in, and have to wait for the check-in desk to open? It maybe I don’t understand what you mean by “drop-off area”.