The ability to directly sell software is necessary but not sufficient to enable a software ecosystem that is not about exploiting the user. That's why I mentio

The ability to directly sell software is necessary but not sufficient to enable a software ecosystem that is not about exploiting the user. That's why I mentioned forcing functions. Once "free" became the norm, it became impossible to even think about doing anything else. The door to conventional honest business models was closed for most software authors and vendors. The notion of all software actually being free is a fantasy, unless you are talking only about software that can only be used by nerds. The amount of effort required to make software usable by the general public is absolutely massive. Then throw in constant UI changes, ecosystem changes, and supporting a lot of targets. In general once the app basically works you are 10% done. The other 90% of the effort is UI/UX.