Sure it might well be in Cloudflare's self-interest, but it's still good they're doing it this way. If it was very obviously the best thing to do, other companies would do likewise. The fact that Cloudflare's approach appears novel suggests it's not just simple self-interest.

The company that I used to work for, had a vast patent portfolio.

They were also getting sued regularly, by patent trolls.

They had really good lawyers, and had a basic policy, to never settle with trolls. It wasn't altruistic. They just didn't want to get bullied. I'm sure that they also went after other companies, and there was probably a lot of wheeling and dealing. That's one of the reasons that corporations like to hoard patents.

They used to require their engineers to file a couple of patents a year. I am on a patent. I got a dollar for it.