This is also the case in the startup world. As we saw recently, any tool that begins to take off gets cloned incredibly quickly (Airtable, Roam...). Given the apparent shortage, it goes to show that ideas actually matter.
I think when criticizing paid software, and paid SaaS, it's a mistake to think their alternative is logically open-source software. It's actually ad-driven software, because a profitable paid service has to provide much more to you than just the code like open-source does, and that costs money.
I relish tools that just let me pay for them and cut out the middle-man. The idea that all software should be free has contributed to the hyper commercialized, invasive, ad-funded internet we have now.
Because in the current environment it's easy to leverage VC money to stay just-ahead in the user-acquisition race, while the early employees extract very nice salaries and build their networks -- which they can use to find their next role when the gravy train ends.
It really doesn't matter a bit if the product survives in the marketplace or not. It just needs to 'succeed' in the short term.
Those are all okay because they don't use an openly replicated linked list with byzantine fault tolerance. The ones using an openly replicated linked list with byzantine fault tolerance are the only ones that should be subject to scrutiny and public fits of outrage. If they are using PostgreSQL on AWS, there is no issue.
