>The folly here is you believe MS does this because they want to support open source...In reality they get a TON of value from this "free" service

What is the difference? Nobody supports open source for the sake of it, we support it because we get tons of value from the "free" service. It sounds like incentives are properly aligned.

I see nowhere that GP said anything about what they believe. They might believe that, but until they say so, you're reading more into the comment than is there and making an assumption

> anyone using github free account is the product.

Also people who pay for their GitHub account.

another common folly is thinking that paying puts you in a special tier. free stuff is solely funded by the value of data, ofc there are exceptions funded by donated money and hard work. The things that are made to make money though, don't suddenly stop using the value of your data because you pay for them.

Github has no lock in.