I think we should always be skeptical when something appears to be 'free', especially when it comes from a company that is likely to monetize it in the future.

I think we should always be skeptical when something appears to be 'free', especially when it comes from a company that is likely to monetize it in the future. Android was probably started to unseat Apple's dominance and touting it as open was the best strategy to attract developers. There are probably many of such cases, e.g., Amazon, Twitter changing their stance, leading to products depending on them to suffer. Companies are selfish so they'll do what is best for them. However, developers mainly have themselves to blame for wanting to believe that such 'free' platforms exist in their own pursuit to monetize it. Unless something is endorsed by Free Software Foundation, then you should take it as not entirely 'free'.