Yeah... Except GoodYear is a commercial entity. While KDE is not.

The reason corporations pull that kind of shit, is because there's money in it.

Why the fuck would a FOSS project start locking down functionality? They don't sell anything. Even when FOSS projects charge, the second they're unfair about it, people will just fork the project and take it for free.

KDE doesn't have "sales". They don't care whether they have a thousand users or a million. The money they "make" is the same. Because KDE isn't a product you buy. Their revenue doesn't go up or down depending on how many people they can get to use their desktop environment and applications.

In fact, if anything, doing what you suspect would cause people to donate less to the project.

The thing about FOSS projects is that if they forced you to use them in a way that upsets you... You can just not pay. With GoodYear, making you unhappy is worth it, because you still have to buy the car.