I'd like to correct that impression - Protomaps is an explicitly commercial venture.

The difference from other commercial vendors is the focus on a complete, easily deployable solution - the hosted API is meant for non-commercial and light commercial use, instead of being the main product offering, to avoid the incentive trap of locking-in paying users to the API.

A related concept is the Community Right to Replicate: https://2i2c.org/right-to-replicate/