mmmmmmm regulatory capture, wouldn't be america without it - nothing says freedom and open markets like sawing off the rungs from the bottom of the ladder after you've already climbed to the top
Open source AI is not at the bottom of the ladder; like closed source AI, some of the brightest, well-educated and arguably well-paid people in the world are the driving force behind it. OpenAI, arguably at the top of the ladder, was supposed to be open source as well.
It's not a perfect analogy, but it's still corporate interests trying to entrench their position to prevent disruption by less politically powerful players.