The founder of the Ladybird project is quite good at getting attention for his projects. He used it first to build community around his SerenityOS project. He is using it now to build awareness around Ladybird and, in particular, to attract financial sponsors.

My assumption is that the level of promotion triggers distrust in the commenter.

In my view, it should be a model for Open Source projects in general. He managed to get enough Patreon support to go full-time on SerenityOS. Many devs provide absolutely crucial software used by everyone while struggling to also work ful-time and pay the bills. He was able to use that full-time freedom to start something as ambitious as a ground-up browser project within SerenityOS. And he attracted many collaborators to his cause. Progress was rapid enough that he split off into the dedicated Ladybird browser project for which he now has an impressive list of financial sponsors. This has allowed his to hire full-time staff. There are still volunteers.

If every Open Source project followed his lead, the world would be a difference place.

It is worth noting how much more slowly SerenityOS is evolving now that he is gone. And what is happening is largely invisible to the wider world.

In my mind, the effective community engagement has allowed the Ladybird project to advance with less corporate oversight, not more. There is less risk of this becoming Google or Mozilla. Of course, time will tell.