Yes, proprietary components (boot loaders, drivers etc.) for any device needs to be reverse engineered in order to understand how the hardware works. This creates additional work (and additional challenges - some countries has laws that prohibits reverse engineering) in addition to the work needed to port FreeBSD to a new but well documented platform.
And in real life, the FreeBSD project could use more developers just to manage the existing load of work (supported archs, ports, documentation and so on). So for new developers sign up for other reasons than personal interest (in other words, to make a living) someone would need to set up a long-term fund that could cover paying developers either part-time or full time. The FreeBSD Foundation does a good job of that with the (limited) funds they have from donations - perfect for me and other "Joes" with only a normal wage. So donate if you can.
In case anyone really rich (you know venture capitalists, big lottery winners, etc) are reading this and haven't already donated to the FreeBSD Foundation; consider doing so to the best of your ability.