I would put it in a more positive light. Long ago, nginx was excellent providing way more than Apache or other alternatives. Then they added features which were pretty advanced and uncommon behind a pay wall.
Many of those features have gone from fancy to expected, and they transitioned too late to making them open source.
The free product went through a slow decline from excellent to artificially crippled, and they’re changing course, which should be applauded. On top of that they didn’t take away features to cripple their product for money, just what is basically necessary these days is so much more than it was years ago.
I don't disagree with your take. I just find it disheartening that it took what presumably they must perceive as a threat to their revenue stream to start listening to developers/engineers about the role open source can play in their product offering and what effect that might have on the "community" around nginx.
Many of those features have gone from fancy to expected, and they transitioned too late to making them open source.
The free product went through a slow decline from excellent to artificially crippled, and they’re changing course, which should be applauded. On top of that they didn’t take away features to cripple their product for money, just what is basically necessary these days is so much more than it was years ago.