You're not wrong, but a) most of the badness happened after the founders checked out and b) it's hard to find examples of developer tool companies doing better.
You might be on to something with point B, hard to find good examples of developer tool companies that don't eventually turn sour. However, there are countless examples of successful and still very useful developer tools out there, maybe slapping a company on it and sell a "pro" version isn't the way to go?
As for "slapping a company on it", I agree, but also I don't think we've developed a viable alternative. Python has been limping along with one toolchain or another for my entire career (multiple decades) and it took Astral's very specific approach to create something better. It's fair to ask why they needed to be venture backed, but they clearly are and the lack of successful alternatives is telling.
https://www.hashicorp.com/en/blog/mitchell-s-new-role-at-has...