Oh, 100%. And I'm all for FOSS and an adapter architecture approach (no lock-ins of any kind).
Team is aware of it, CTO wants it, so opening the core is happening. I've got no reason not to believe them. Ofc, can't expect a stranger to believe me either. The fact that you can build your own plugins on top of the core, even before open-sourcing it, should be a sign that it's about giving you control, not locking you in on anything. But yeah, actually making it OSS will make that trust grow much easier.