Great writeup! I couldn't agree more.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, because GPL was meant to ensure that vendors couldn't take OSS, turn it into closed source, and use it to extinguish the OSS.

As JS-writing eng I live in an MIT-native offshoot of the OSS world and for us the ratchet that ensures we always get more and more free software is basically the fact that when your product is a script run in a scripting engine you can't ever truly hide anything.

Since we have an alternate ratchet that has proven that it works to increase the amount and quality of OSS (over a 20-year time period), the GPL does seem as you say: a relic of times when we it seemed like software might only be a hobby.

I'm writing a VCS kernel, basically, and its cost me the last 5 years of my life. My code is MIT. Do I have to think about the dangers of embrace-extend-extinguish? Yeah, but having the best product is a very strong defense, and building the widest coalition of supporters you can is how you get there.