> A true open-source project like PostgreSQL only benefits from Amazon and Google offering it as a paid, hosted solution
And like, how?
For a project to be exploited by tech corps usually the project itself needs to be already relevant and widely used across the industry. That's why it doesn't really need any publicity from AWS and that's why AWS "steals" it, their customers won't have to learn a new tool but can re-use their knowledge. Lower entry barrier = more customers.
> If you are concerned with "competitors" offering your open-source project to more users, then perhaps being open source was just a poorly chosen marketing tactic that backfired.
How free-markety of you.
Now imagine that Elastic took your suggestion. They never made the elastic suite FOSS in the first place but only sold it as a closed source product.
1) It would have never got widely used in the industry
2) We would have never got a free open source tool that helped kick-start many other companies.
You could say the same about Mongo. Imagine what impact it would have had on the startup world if Mongo wasn't a FOSS project.
That's why it is fundamental to protect FOSS projects from corporate exploitation, in order to protect the whole tech eco-system.