The weird part is that Hashicorp doesn't have a single core product that is valuable by itself. Their stuff is infrastructure built to enable an ecosystem. It's a hub, all the plugins, providers etc. are the spokes. The real value, the wheel so to speak, comes from building on top of all of that. If they can't compete on that level, well, so be it. Now forcing everyone to pay them for building the hub, the core part, means the ecosystem will crumble. No hub, no spokes. Also it makes Hashicorp the villant, not their competitors.