A rose by any other name would smell as sweet

Have a read here: https://wpengine.com/blog/highlighting-wordpress-innovation-contribution/

WPEngine has been been contributing to the open source community, in many different ways:

• Sponsoring WordCamps
• Running developer events
• Developing resources and support hubs
• Developing frameworks
• Maintaining plugins

I’ve never used them as host, and probably never will, but it seems highly disingenuous for this idea to be propagating that that are only on the take with nothing returned to the community.

“Sponsoring WordCamps” is classed as advertising – not supporting the core WordPress project.

“Maintaining plugins” includes premium plugins that WP Engine charge for like ACF Pro. Many companies support and maintain plugins and frameworks when they want users to pay for their premium versions of those plugins and frameworks.

“Developing resources and support hubs” – Again, so many of us who use WordPress to make our money create free support resources for the platform to encourage users to adopt a product that we can sell services for.

None of these things represents significant, selfless investment back into the WP core project from WP Engine.

but I do care about Open Source and that those who are seeking to make a lot of money off the back of Open Source software are actually contributing back to the Open Source community

As described above, they are contributing back. No company or individual who is involved with WordPress makes selfless investments with their contributions. Everyone who contributes to WordPress has a vested interest in its continued success.

High profile event sponsorship is NOT the same as behind the scenes developer hours.