Should they be though? I'm not at all familiar with the specifics at play here, but from a company perspective, a player they can then fully shepherd to prioritize their own needs/desires for, is still a win against an alternative that would be more expensive to acquire, and which if they don't they can't own priorities for.

Obviously there would need to be a balance between determining roadmap for your own needs, and building something to more broadly appeal to use in the outside world, but getting to influence that without creating a fork is still huge.

And that's without the other considerations of the acquihire aspect.