Forced open source for everyone but them. They retain copyright and will continue to sell proprietary adaptions, while forbidding everyone else to do the same.

I will only pay for chat servers with all public code. If they go proprietary they lose my money and support.

I would find/fork a LibreMatrix and direct myself and all my clients to use that instead.

Openness and accountability is why I use matrix, and expect many others feel the same.

It is in the best interest of Element to stay open. After all, end to end encryption is impossible to trust if a central party controls both ends.

The reason for the CLA is so we can sell AGPL exceptions to those who are allergic to AGPL, not so we can further relicense down the road.

Great to hear that directly from you. Makes sense to me.

AGPL is a misdirection, the CLA reveals what is likely their true long term intentions.

it starts with "clo" and ends with "urce"

It's forced for those who can only use it under the license (everyone except Element/Matrix). It isn't forced for the copyright assignee (Element/Matrix).

That isn't more open to me.