I completely agree but think it's a losing battle. With some exception, I feel that there is a disconnect between people who are naturally technical, and the people who are typically making decisions at companies about where to allocate spending. It tracks the same dilemma with technical people not viewing risk the same way as non-technical stakeholders. Non-technical people usually make decisions that value long term support, data security, compliance, actual live support plans etc., mainly because they know they can't deal with issues the same way technical people can. This creates an entire billion dollar industry that's fundamentally disconnected from how technical people normally think or value software. The fact that one semi-enterprise client has no problem paying thousands per month for a lackluster product/basic IT support, but a multi-million dollar startup won't pay $100/month or a developer making $100k/year+ still uses an unlicensed copy of their IDE ($20 sublime etc) only proves the point more.
It's a fundamental issue but one I think will get better as building software becomes more inclusive and normal in society/schools etc.
Sorry for the labels, just trying to make a point and share what my experience had been, from seeing both sides.
You make a good point that the financial decision-makers and the engineers are often not the same people at companies, and this adds to the disconnect in how open source is valued. What do you think about the ideas presented at the end of the article suggesting some ways to address this, e.g. companies setting aside a fund for open source that their developers could decide how to spend?
From the "money people" perspective it would likely be more of a marketing/branding/recruitment/staff engagement expense (because those are the budget lines where they'll see value for the investment) - but at the end of the day the important thing is supporting critical open source projects.
It's a fundamental issue but one I think will get better as building software becomes more inclusive and normal in society/schools etc.
Sorry for the labels, just trying to make a point and share what my experience had been, from seeing both sides.