"but they offer no real productivity gains in the long run." I guess if you define 'long run' however you want... sure. Your point may stand. For almost ever

"but they offer no real productivity gains in the long run." I guess if you define 'long run' however you want... sure. Your point may stand. For almost everyone I know, JetBrains tools have delivered a massive, measurable amount of productivity gain, compared to any other tools they were using (commercial or free). "no real productivity gain" is highly subjective, and doesn't come close to matching the experience of most of the developers I know in their day to day work.