But that's because the non-trivial stuff, the real meat of the core product, is free right? Almost every dual (or more) priced (core) source available (at least) is enterprises with the money subsidising it for people/companies for whom the alternative is not to use it, not to pay for it.

If you have any emotional response like that it's 'ransom', then you're probably not the target audience for the enterprise tier.

(And I don't mean that you don't need/can't make use of features hidden in that tier, just that if there are many in the same boat, then the provider misjudged the contents of that tier.)