I agree with the idea that nobody is forcing anybody to donate.
If the community agrees that it's insulting and unethical and greedy and whatnot, nobody will donate and that will be that. If someone is obviously just milking people unfairly, I'm sure that will come through.
Or, if some people do want to donate, they will and that's their choice.
Now if somebody begins flooding the forums and Twitter with a new donation request every single day, that becomes a problem and is a different issue. Or if somebody obviously doesn't use the money in the way they stated, that's another big problem. But a donation drive in and of itself isn't wrong.
You have a valid point that people should work and earn for themselves. But some donation drives come in light of situations where people have come into some bad luck, etc. financially. I think specifically of my recent one, and the one dashner did over a year ago. Everybody's different.