Does Open Source Work as a Long-Term Business Model?

Well open source obviously is very successful if nothing else for the fact so much infrastructure runs on it.

IMO there's a good market for certifying/ validating code used by government agencies/healthcare.

It is not about developing the best software, that's what the open source community is doing.

It is about getting paid to make sure a version meets requirements for a government or healthcare or similar organization where "use at your own risk" is not good enough.

Open source can be a sustainable and profitable business model when companies combine it with strategic monetization efforts, strong community engagement, and the development of a robust ecosystem. However, it requires careful planning and execution to balance the benefits of open source with the need for revenue generation. Like Red Hat Elastic Yugabyte and MongoDB

Successful open source models and companies like RedHat and Ubuntu prove that you can do open source in the OS market and still be viable. In the database market while it has been more elusive, it is still possible.