I do not like when things like this occurs.

All these plugins/themes/etc…merging, it will sound like FAANG/MAMAA.
A few people “controlling” things.
Just like in many monthly meetup groups and WordCamps but not all.

FAANG: Facebook Amazon Apple Netflix Google
MAMAA: Meta Alphabet Microsoft Amazon Apple

There should be a variety of options. What’s next? Yoast/AIOSEO/Rankmath buying each other out?

There’s being a few of these kind of articles. Not saying anything about the article or the author by the way.

99% of the time it’s either lack of income or people do not have the will to continue.

In that 18 months gap (where author of plugin got a job somewhere else), I wonder if it was announced, someone could of forked it.

I am all about the independent devs. After so many plugins get taken over by the few bigger companies………the following happens.

It gets the “hey can we have some of your non-identifiable information?” “hey freemium stuff” or just massively blast EVERYWHERE ON MY ADMIN DASHBOARD about the PRO upgrades.