Ramble
"<some piece of free software> isn't as good as <perceived commercial counterpart> and it will never be popular until it is." sounds ridiculous applied to other things.
"The clothes you make aren't as good as the ones I get from H&M and they will never be popular until they are."
It's actually fine to make things that aren't like commercial things, and it's not a failure if they're used by a small number of people.
Ramble
@owl Agree. FOSS is no longer failure at all. They're still not similar to commercial alternatives, yet creating huge waves. I mean look at Blender. Now being used by big names and everything.
https://www.quora.com/Is-Blender-used-by-professionals?share=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software)#Use_in_the_media_industry
Friend-scale is a good scale, IMO