I mean, some of this devolves down to the nature of the tools. Eagle was garbage, we all knew it, but it was free and relatively easy to get started on, so ever

I mean, some of this devolves down to the nature of the tools. Eagle was garbage, we all knew it, but it was free and relatively easy to get started on, so everybody in the OSHW movement used it. What we should've done was commit to KiCad early on, so there never was this closed-source element in the chain looming over the whole project. I think open-source is a laudable goal, but your competitors have to be willing to play by the same rules, otherwise you're hobbling yourself. I worked at an agriculture startup some years ago, and while we all wanted the gizmos to be hackable for our customers, we all knew that if we opened things too much, a real heavy like John Deere, Monsanto, or Simplot would swoop in, leverage their existing logistics and customer base, and put us out of business the instant we had a product valuable enough to steal. I don't like that e.g. Sparkfun is putting out a product that's worth more on its own than as a learning tool, so I agree with you. This signals a shift in Sparkfun overall that I don't like.