The one persistent thread I've seen with "support-based models", notably Red Hat, is that ... the tools leave you requiring support, and yet the support still sucks (in large part because the support engineers have to use the same crappy tools you do).
I'm not going to pretend I've got the Free Software business model sorted out. But I have noticed that project goals and incentives do line up with results. Debian has a social contract, a constitution, and policy, and the tools to support these. From an ease-of-use / ease-of-maintenance perspective, Debian (and its derivatives) blow RPM-based systems out of the water. And to be clear: the distinction is much less the packaging formats (though that's part of it) and far more the use and management of these tools.
I think there's someone who died recently who made the end-user experience key. While his organization struggled at times, it's emerged in recent years as an absolute behemoth which suggests ultimately that the alignment he chose is better than that of a principle rival.