Huh? How are you coming to that conclusion?

It is important to me, and if I was aware of an open-source Obsidian equivalent, I would have chosen that. But there wasn't, and AFAIK there still isn't one.

Having a good tool that works well for my purpose is more important, yes. So I still happily pay for it.

no benefit to the producer

Perhaps...? But the producer isn't who I care about here; I'm the user.