I do not understand how what you have suggested could be considered as an appropriate analogy.

No one implied that the author should offer their product for free. I merely suggested that they need to focus on other aspect of their product rather than the mechanical software parts because they can no longer be the differentiating factor. Precisely because they could easily be recreated or copied.

If you can't demonstrate there is value in keeping you vs outsourcing the job, well, that's naturally going to happen.

I say that as someone who thinks about this almost every day.

Which to be fair, would maybe actually work, and there are political positions that want to achieve such an economic system. Not that I would necessarily agree with them.