You misunderstood -- the parent said this is already the case. A lot of FOSS is already heavily subsidized, from grants and tax money. No "would"s needed. And

You misunderstood -- the parent said this is already the case. A lot of FOSS is already heavily subsidized, from grants and tax money. No "would"s needed. And yes, it definitely makes it harder for indie developers to "compete", because these institutions run on infinite slave labour (students and postdocs). The only way to compete is on quality, which brings us back to the original "who pays for quality time" premise.