You generalize too much. If you think Jetbrains are likely to take peoples code even though they opted out you should substantiate that.

But why can’t you have the best of both situations from the publics perspective? You could require companies to disclose financial numbers if above a certain size, even if privately owned. That wouldn’t force the owner(s) to be beholden to anyone, they just have to report the numbers. It’s what we do here.

When you say “the reality is”, do you mean that the existing players are just too powerful to allow it? Or is there something inherint to the system that wouldn’t allow it?

Well said. I switched to Mint on my laptop recently and just the serenity of not being pestered by the OS constantly fills me with contentment. Also, the fan was running constantly due to Windows background processes before and now it is silent unless I’m doing heavy work. Feels good.