Developers pay for tools gladly when the pricing model isn’t based on how much money you’re making.

I’m happy to drop a fixed 200e/mo on Claude but I’d never sign paperwork that required us to track user installs and deliver $0.02 per install to someone

Especially not if those kind of contracts don't survive an acquisition because then your acquisition is most likely dead in the water. The acquirer would have to re-negotiate the license and with a little luck they'd be screwed over because they have nowhere else to go.

I think what they do is correct. We also need to get paid this way.