closed source and VC backed

Basically a non-starter at this point.

Maybe used to be these startups would compete for user affections by being more benevolent.

But nowadays the bare basics of even being competitive in the business is having a plan for gaining critial mass and then rapidly enshittifying for revenue before selling your product users to some new private equity overlords.

Open source used to be more of just a preference, or a virtue. Now it's basically the only way to not guarantee your exploitation.