Agreed; Expo is in a unique situation that favors partnership with Facebook to maximize the penetration of the React license terms into the broader ecosystem. As such, Expo has natural resistance to the scenario above in that Facebook would not go after a promoter of its license strategy.

That said, Expo is sort of an outlier in this regard and other teams using React or other affected technologies in the process of building their businesses are unlikely to have the protection of such a natural alliance.

Beyond strategic alignment and intellectual property protections, it is hard to imagine what else might balance the scales between a global gigacorp and a $5M SV startup.