This is also the case in the startup world. As we saw recently, any tool that begins to take off gets cloned incredibly quickly (Airtable, Roam...). Given the apparent shortage, it goes to show that ideas actually matter.
to be honest, expensive, proprietary tools like Airtable, Notion, Retool deserve to be copied
why would you pour significant resources into something that one day can and probably will disappear, cancelled or priced out?
It really doesn't matter a bit if the product survives in the marketplace or not. It just needs to 'succeed' in the short term.
VC-startups are glorified MLMs for early employees and investors
I relish tools that just let me pay for them and cut out the middle-man. The idea that all software should be free has contributed to the hyper commercialized, invasive, ad-funded internet we have now.