I think I miscommunicated if that's what it sounds like I was saying. I agree with you. You posed the hypothetical "If everybody stopped buying proprietary software…", and suggested that programmers would get by just fine. My suggestion is that they would indeed get by just fine, by becoming something else.
I don't think that will happen, though, for precisely the reason you state.
I don't think that will happen, though, for precisely the reason you state.