I agree with you, and thank you for your work.

With my own project I no longer had the time, and a multinational was going to release it (based on what I had put online). So, I published everything I had and did a copyleft license. The multinational still made money, but could not patent it. Cottage industries still use it and you could make it right now with some soldering skills and a Mouser BOM.

The original product could be strictly physical, though it lacked quite a bit of functionality, adding a few chips or an SBC vastly improved its performance.

That's great if you can still maintain your project, not everyone can though. In some ways I wish I was still in the thick of things, but I can't be, and like I said it has moved on. My project is probably better now that I am no longer involved. Other people have moved it places I did not consider. I think that's great. I still check in from time to time and provide guidance if asked, mostly I let it run its course.

the street finds its own use for things -William Gibson

Sorry for the overly wordy nonsense