Effort doesn't have much relationship with value. Nor does the complexity of the core tech. People don't pay for implementation details; geek points don't mean prizes.

Effort where it maximizes return, leveraging existing assets where possible, to solve problems for real customers, is what's valuable.

Newly built tech is a rapidly depreciating asset; the depreciation comes not only from the progressing state of the art elsewhere, but also in maintenance costs and lack of network effects. Open sourcing to offset the depreciation is risky too.