>Once we're talking about services, if you're not willing or able to operate the service yourself (at the scale you need...) then the open core seems pretty use

>Once we're talking about services, if you're not willing or able to operate the service yourself (at the scale you need...) then the open core seems pretty useless as a check on the company's ability to squeeze you for more cash. But if you aren't willing, then the service provides value and if you aren't able to, then there is the conflict of interest in that the opencore company might sabotage scaling the opensource version but if we ignore that possibility (after all, you should simply avoid the product, if the opensource version is inferior) then you are again paying for the value of someone else taking care of your problems. Calling this "squeezing" is strange.