Sure, there are probably businesses out there whose entire livelihood is built on akka, and I get that the creators might be upset that they're not contributing to the project. But there are a lot of other businesses out there where this might be a great solution for a very small part of the problem space, and they are just never going to use this tech now. A few years ago I used akka at my current gig for a project that ended up fizzling, and had always hoped to re-introduce it if another appropriate opportunity emerged. This change makes that a non-starter.
I also think this is a big blow in terms of the future of computing. The actor model is so useful, and it's taken so long to come close to mainstream. And now the biggest implementation shoves a giant stick in its own spoke.