> Millions and possibly billions of dollars just assuming average SWE compensation rates

Yeah, and average kernel devs are not average SWEs

I think it's more prosaic, OSS is great for building a userbase but not great at generating revenue. So just wave the OSS flag while you build a userbase, then pull out whichever flimsy excuse seems workable at the time when you want to start step two of your enshittification plan.

The only thing new here is the excuse.