Comment by juped

Yes, it's a very smart business model. SQLite is extremely useful at all levels; I get it for free (not even merely open source, they took pains to dedicate it into the public domain, which is part of why they don't take patches), and enterprises pay to have their procurement boxes ticked, legal documents signed, and so forth.

The hypothetical Hwaci which tried to be a trendy billion dollar company would be so much worse, and you probably wouldn't even be able to buy support. No one would benefit but institutional money.