The line between dedication and delusion is apparently pretty blurry. One can't seriously expect to profit with closed software in a space where free and open alternatives are the norm. VSCode is open source, 7-Zip is open source, they are both objectively better in every way. If anything I would rather support those by contributing directly.
Besides absurd levels of market saturation, code editors are a complement to software, just like libraries and frameworks, and we benefit most as a society by keeping tools open. Imagine having to pay a monthly subscription for a json lib. I find the entire concept ridiculous.
That wasn't the case in 2009. And yeah, I do use 7zip mostly now, but it was a different story back then and WinRar was really fast and had really great compression and features. And who cares, it was like $20 or something.
Besides absurd levels of market saturation, code editors are a complement to software, just like libraries and frameworks, and we benefit most as a society by keeping tools open. Imagine having to pay a monthly subscription for a json lib. I find the entire concept ridiculous.