[jjav]

> Also tangentially I don’t buy into the binary distinction “it’s free it can be poison I can’t complain / I paid it’s my right to be an entitled asshole”. The cost is irrelevant with the promise for me, the first cent doesn’t have magical entitlement, and its absence is not a free pass to (white) lie.

There is no binary distinction and it isn't about the amount of money per se.

What you're missing is that full extent of what you can expect is spelled out in the license.

Whether it's an open source license or a commercial one, a common one or a custom one. If you don't prefer the terms of the default license, attempt to negotiate a different one. You can always negotiate. If you expect more, expect to pay more.

There is no clause in any license (that I've ever seen) that says if this project is more popular or shows up more often in search results then the license grants the recipients more support. That's not how it works. Read the license, that's what you get, nothing more.