Thanks for your perspective! It is interesting. How does the business plan deal with the chance that it's perfectly in my hands (read: on anyone with whatever motivation, usually commercial) to grab the code and provide the same thing but cheaper or even free?

In this case I feel that the answer might ultimately be that it works because it is mostly a niche market and there are other value adds such as support from the makers themselves, which is always a good thing but already is not the software itself per se.

I don't think many companies would be confortable with such a brittle grasp on their sales. Basically it relies on nobody else wanting to do the same (and maybe risk that they execute better).

Imagine if Photoshop was OSS... well, it is good food for thought.

(EDIT re. the apps you mention: also interesting cases; not sure how much that model is actively hurting them or otherwise helping them, would love to see writeups from the companies or creators)