Intent matters. Linux, gcc, git OSS projects are less concerned about capturing value from the economic activities enabled by them, which is why they were all

Intent matters. Linux, gcc, git OSS projects are less concerned about capturing value from the economic activities enabled by them, which is why they were all set up as not-for-profit enterprises; the expectation is that donations will help cover their operating costs. MongoDB on the other hand is a for-profit enterprise that took VC funding in the hope that they'd be able to cover their operating costs in the long term without donations. The only way to do this is to capture some of the value offered by the NOSQL paradigm, but it appears that the cloud providers are beating them at that game, which is why they needed to change tactics, to guarantee their survival as a self-sustaining entity.