This is what happens when developers do not pay for their tools. Companies instead take full control over it and the team then loses their independence.

Just like Bun, Astral and Astro, did VoidZero ever make any money?

If not then this is why open source alone is unsustainable, especially in the age of AI.

afaik Void Cloud never went GA

Why not setup proper no profit foundations instead of VC-funded for profits then?

I think major projects that are core to the infrastructure should get financing and donations from the major tech companies benefitting.

I'm not saying my solution would work, maybe I'm being naive and unaware of the realities of most of these projects.

This would happen even if developers were paying, because a 100 billion dollar corporation like Cloudflare can always pay more.

It has nothing to do with sustainability and everything to do with cashing out a huge payday, which seems to be the end goal of everything nowadays.