> at least Microsoft wouldn't take the heat for not doing enough free work for everyone else

You're massively misunderstanding the goals of these large companies who provide open source projects, whether it's VSCode, Android, Chrome, or whatever. The goal is always control. Companies at this scale never do free work for the common good.

I don't say this to deride them, I say it as a statement of fact that we all need to be aware of when we choose to use these products.