Item 1 is certainly the case here. Espressif licensed most of their original IP from tensilica, and this is completely normal for building a commercial microco

Item 1 is certainly the case here. Espressif licensed most of their original IP from tensilica, and this is completely normal for building a commercial microcontroller. If you don't have the in-house skill to build a complete WiFi radio stack from the ground up, you simply license the IP core and roll it into your product. Nice work by the presenters here, it's a good idea and might help the community, but the current state is not the result of Espressif trying to be jerks.