going way off the rail (but this is a good example for some general thoughs regardings to software in society)

this illustrates two different approaches (goals? paths?) about software in society:

on the one hand: the lilypond way -- the old-school hobbyist open/free source "communist" approach, the path-being-abandonded. In which there's a learning curve but once learned it opens a world of possibilities.

on the other hand: the dorico way -- the commercialist (mercantilist), Microsoft-pionered world of private and commercial software products in which companies work to reduce the learning curve but also end up turning the afore mentioned world of possibilities into a constrained hallway or a boxed easy-to-use shelf of products (an app store) which is also difficult to customize (enter the 'contractors ecosystem' who will do it for you; or app marketplace).

The path we're being dragged into (at least I feel like I'm getting dragged, I prefer the other path but this is a collective decision, so my own individual choice is discarded in the face of the overall social choice)

Tools like Lilypond are not just for hobbyists or non-commercial users; in fact, there's a pretty long history of Lilypond devs getting paid for adding new features to the software, as well as for general support/maintenance work.