I think the point was to have quality crowd-sourced code that solves a problem elegantly available for free and nondiscriminatory use. Businesses saw the value in FOSS because in many cases they didn't have to reinvent the wheel.
I think the problem now is, FOSS supporters, contributors and programmers see that the software has real market value that they may not be cashing in on. Or rather, they have a romantic idea in their head that they can dictate usage policy to large profitable companies. IMHO, contributing to FOSS is a donation on your part, but does not imply charity.