It can be construed as "abuse" if another commercial entity is deriving value from the core license while Cockroach Labs doesn't get to enjoy a "fair" share of this created value, while pouring its own resources into a product that enables this value creation.

I think CR Labs needs to make money from their activities. However they do it, should be in a way that incentivizes a win-win for them and their customers. Right now I think they attempted to "correct" for the uncaptured value, but the game theory switched toward discouraging adoption (in my perspective). I may be wrong, probably am.