Oh to be clear it's not that that bothers me, it's the fact that it's closed source. That's just personal preference though.

I'd be fine with a "source available" paying solution for instance, as long as the terms of the license are reasonable. This way at least I know that if the project goes defunct I'm not stuck with apps that I can't easily run anywhere anymore. See all these Flash games that nobody can easily play anymore.

An example of software that works that way is SQLite: they sell extensions as source code with a perpetual (non-open-source) license.

Yep, slightly under the cost of two decent brews for hours of fun. Lua is easy to learn, there is a ton of Pico-8 info. Give a search for the Pico-8zine, a ton of tips and great ideas. Pico-8 has been talked about here and Hackaday.