[austincheney]

So what happens then when a polished open source solution solves for a problem that developer tools cannot solve for? That speaks nothing of demand and only signals that there is no alternative supply. It also speaks nothing to the boringness of the hypothetical solution.

I suspect by asking that question any reader starts immediately scratching their head thinking up what problem/solution that could possibly be. Don’t. That confuses product for business.

[brandmeyer]

Just because people want a super-wham-o-dyne tool doesn't mean that they are willing to pay for one. The cases of awesome well-polished open-source tools are frequently cases where the market wasn't willing to pay for them. One or few developers wanted it enough to build and release it for free, so they did it anyway.

So yeah, that is speaking of demand. Economically-relevant demand.