Songroom
The fact is that BandLab are not giving away the full product, new users get the core program which is akin to the original 'Artist' version. When I opted for the former flagship release my decision was based on the wealth of additional extras it included and I can still use the majority of these with CbB. I have pretty much what I paid for with the added bonus of continued development.
Base versions of other software titles (including MS Visual Studio and Unity) are also available for free. This doesn't seem to have a detrimental affect on their popularity.
This is incorrect information that you are spreading.
The core program is what was previously called Sonar Platinum. The additional content is what was included with the Artist version.
The plugins and instruments will be made available and further developed for sale at some point in the future. For those people that already had Platinum their plugins will just be picked up by Cakewalk by BandLab. For those folks who have never owned Platinum before or Sonar in general they will get an opportunity to purchase whichever plugins and content will be put in the online store once it gets back online.
Seeing as this has happened in period of little more than a month ie from purchase of the Intellectual Property and assets to release of the first version it seems unreasonable to expect that could have done more. As it is CbB includes a few features that were to be included in the November release last year when development ceased.
The principle is that Cakewalk will remain free and additional content will be sold. This is the same idea that didn’t quite get time to flourish under Cakewalk by Gibson because Gibson didn’t have the vision let alone the funds to back it up. BandLab does.