> The rest are funded through grants, which have the side effect of directing a sizeable chunk of the academics time to writing grant applications rather than science.

That's not a consequence of grant funding itself. The traditional academic career path jumps directly from a trainee to a manager, and managers have to do what managers do.

Larger research institutes have positions for professional researchers. Those researchers don't have to spend that much time on grant writing, unless they want to become managers or they are trying to remain competitive for positions in the traditional PI-centric academia.

That's a key lesson for FOSS. If the development is funded by grants and donations, the organization should be large enough that every senior developer doesn't have to become a manager.