There is a reason why I love free and open-source software. I love open-source because the code is auditable, security can be reviewed just by looking at the source, the software isn’t an opaque black box, and it creates a community around a piece of software.
Each one of these has side-effects that are, for the most part, beneficial to everyone.
The ‘Free’ in free and open-source software does not primarily represent the price (although all free software does not cost money). The ‘Free’ stands for freedom. That is, the freedom to use, distribute, modify software as you please. This is a beautiful thing. There is no such thing as ‘sunsetting’ a free and open-source software project, the community of those who use the software have the freedom to maintain it. You are protected from feature regression of features that you need. Paywalls for features shouldn’t be a thing, and if a project is truly free and open-source, you can modify it and redistribute as you wish.
In a sense, free and open-source software is like writing software where the code that gets put in is democratically accepted by a project community. If a project maintainer goes haywire and starts accepting questionably contributions and changes to their project, the community can make a fork. If the fork is truly better than the original, there is no reason why it can’t become the dominant and most widely-used version.
I like machines, tools, and ideas that last forever. People buy lathes from the 1960s because they are reasonably accurate but will last forever. Free and open-source software are the software tools that will last me forever. Because of that I am willing to put in the time now to find, learn, and configure said software for a lifetime of utility.