They are paid for by future development and / or increased adoption.
Take the most popular open source editor (vscode). Do you think microsoft is getting value from this open source product? Why didn't they charge a yearly licease fee instead of open sourcing it? They were probably more interested in increased adoption...
My point was about random people trying to make a living out of open source, while others feel entitled not to support them, while enjoying earning money.
Not about corporations doing open source as advertising stunt.
Which is precisely why anything I produce, is either commercial or under GPL.
