I’ve found many startups are merely “investments” by some entrepreneur that were intended from inception, whether explicitly or not, to be grown to a sufficiently negotiable state and sold to the biggest buyer. That’s not to say that big tech companies don’t buy-out their competition, but many startups also dream of being bought-out.

Yes, this is the crux of LineageOS. There is a fork called DivestOS that is more libré and reduces dependence on Google services, as well as having bootloader re-locking for some devices.