First, apparently they didn't find anybody interested in it, so throwing the code into the open is still better than the trash can where it would disappear fore

First, apparently they didn't find anybody interested in it, so throwing the code into the open is still better than the trash can where it would disappear forever. Maybe as open source they find somebody willing to invest time and energy to make it more useful and/or accessible which then even flows back to benefit the original author. For free. Second, open sourcing does bot preclude making money from it. If it turns out that enough people actually find it useful. As long as nobody does, the argument "butbif I oprn source it then I can't monetize it" is void in any case.