Microchip need to realize that they're selling chips, not software. The barrier to entry should be as low as possible, providing a free, developer-friendly tool

Microchip need to realize that they're selling chips, not software. The barrier to entry should be as low as possible, providing a free, developer-friendly tool chain to attract hobbyists. Instead they treat software as another IP that should be milked. The unbearable developer experience actually drove me away from they PIC microcontrollers towards AVR many years ago. It's pretty obvious to me that the success of the AVR is in large part due to the open tool chain. Microchip makes very nice chips, I'd like to use them but they're handicapped by the obnoxious tools. It's unfortunate that they solved that problem by outright buying Atmel but not changing their own practices.