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> Does open source matter anymore?

I mean, did it ever? It depends what you mean. Very few open source or free software projects are successful in any meaningful sense.

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Considering that the whole industry, including the big AI companies, is built on top of open source now, I would have to say it did matter. That doesn't mean every project mattered (in a larger sense), but certainly thousands of open source projects have value, and dozens have contributed enormous value. The fact that the value has been disconnected from the maintainers has been a problem for a long time, but it is getting worse, and this is one example of a maintainer near the breaking point.

I feel like projects can be successful without being popular.

To me the "open source" model implies something about community development and people sharing or otherwise using it. Otherwise what does it matter if it's open or closed source?

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