Sorry just saw the post now.
To answer your question, I think we need a definition of “Pro users paying for the development of Obsidian”. No offense, but right now it sounds like a loaded question to me.
On the financial side, Dynalist is the first product of Dynalist Inc, and Obsidian is the second product. Although being free (Dynalist is also free btw, plus we bear the server cost of free users unlike with Obsidian, an offline app), Obsidian has been making money since May 2020.
So what I think the situation is: Dynalist Inc. (us) has shifted focus from Dynalist, a mature product, to incubate a new product since start of 2020. Obsidian has been approached by venture capitalists but we have not taken any investment yet.
My understanding of why Dynalist Pro users are paying is that (1) they’re paying for access to Pro features and/or (2) they are paying with an expectation that the product with continue to exist (because free users do have a server cost) and maybe improve. I don’t think any of them are intentionally paying for the development of Obsidian, but they might be effectively doing that if all they’re paying for are significant future updates.
I hope that helps!