The only reason I've started with Delphi back in the day (and loved it) was because everything was pirated in Ukraine circa year 2000, so nobody would even care about licensing/price point.
I used Delphi versions 2-7 many years ago when I was learning to code, some were free versions some were pirated ones.
Then I moved to other web languages (PHP, JS, HTML, CSS) and then few years ago I discovered free Lazarus/FPC combo.
It's stable and has single huge advantage - it runs flawlessly on Linux/OSX/Windows/FreeBSD and can compile binaries for other OSes and architectures even on ARM(Raspberry Pi).
Lately I've found UniDAC database components by devart.com for Delphi/Lazarus and loved them instantly.
I also think Delphi Community version is too little, too late with such a good and cheap alternative.
Lazarus / FPC definitely looks good, I'll check it out! (I still have Delphi 7 installed on one of the machines, so I haven't looking around for alternatives - for what it appears to be 12+ years now).
One thing I liked was how quickly one could bang out a simple GUI application. Sometimes, that's all I need.
I also think Delphi Community version is too little, too late with such a good and cheap alternative.
I'm not affiliated with devart.com.