I disagree with Matt's actions, but not why he is truly compelled to take action. It's been pretty clear for a long time that WP engine was founded to be a max

I disagree with Matt's actions, but not why he is truly compelled to take action. It's been pretty clear for a long time that WP engine was founded to be a maximally profitable business model to fill in the security/reliability gap, with the founder identifying this as why he went into the business: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otbnC2zE2rw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otbnC2zE2rw (note he doesn't mention Open Source there or extraction of value - he's just rightfuly pointing out good fundamentals of business for bootstrapped developers). He mentions how $50 or $100 a month is much better than $5 or $10 a month - and that leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you realise WP Engine still charges that today, a little. Where this comes to the sleazy part is that: A) WP Engine has kept prices the same or increased over the years B) But WordPress has became more secure and a lot of what WP Engine used to uniquely do they no longer do C) WP Engine contributes significantly more to sponsoring conferences seats, and PR spend, then actual contributions I think the combination of these things is what actually drove Matt to make his move: A) Awareness that the original founder made WP Engine to maximize profit; which Matt naturally feels relatively deprived of as a competitor B) The behavior of sponsoring conferences, but not giving back in WP Engine C) Rumors of suppression/avoiding working on Wordpress Core by WP Engine managemnet, which Matt seems to have genuinely been taken by (perhaps a few true WP engineers did reach out - no evidence that I've seen) D) That WP Engine having a "big bad investor" would get people on his side, as that they were blurring the line a little. E) A perception of, or increasingly urgent actual cashflow issues at his company making him think that the longer he put it off, the weaker he will be. F) His own blindness to the obvious hypocrisy with Wordpress.com / Wordpress.org. Matt making threats and essentially extorting WP Engine is entirely wrong. This said, I understand why he did took some action. I'm not sure what I would have done.