Yeah any reverse engineering of closed source code takes time. It’s a huge job on its own. Adding the need to avoid actions that may lead to legal issues.
Well yep, It’s very likely this may never round to a perfect replacement product.
But it still has value. For starters, it will encourage new open source projects to use it rather than the propria try version, long before it’s a direct replacement capable product.
So the effort is worth some excitement. At least a pat on the back and free beer for some of the guys trying.
Yeah that is often the issue.
It is rare a single company owns all the IP on code. So its common that companies are not releasing code because they cannot.