Thank you for sharing more information about the license situation!
To answer you questions about Godot- the Godot core team have a Patreon account that brings in over $10,000 per month- this money is used to pay for their full time salaries. I am not sure how many developers they have at the moment- I think they have 3, but maybe it is only 2- and they are closing in on enough funding to add another. Godot has also received significant grant funding from the Mozilla Foundation and other organizations. They have also participated in the Google Summer of Code.
These are opportunities likely closed to the Defold due to its current license. I have also seen job ads seeking both employees and contractors to work on Godot- I imagine many of these engagements result in contributions flowing back into the project. With the Defold License, the type of engagement a consultant might enter into is likely limited- as the license forbids any form of commercialization. Even if it isn’t intended to prevent hiring a consultant to work on the engine… I think many would shy away from such engagements due to the license forbidding any form of commercialization.
The opportunities that Godot have because of its license also help them to bring in additional contributors who aren’t being paid directly for the work they are doing. Many Google Summer of Code participants go on to become regular contributors to the projects they work on.
One of the biggest reasons for me to choose Open Source is to avoid vendor lock-in- if for some reason I am not a good customer fit for a vendor- especially if there is a mismatch in business models- I don’t want the vendor to be trapped into serving me- nor do I want to be trapped into that vendor. I want know that there is at least the potential to hire some one or pay a company to create the product and service I need, without being restricted by the software license. (Obviously there will always be the restriction of what I am willing to pay versus what a potential vendor is willing to accept for the work!) If I have that option open, I am more willing to build on a product and trust in its future. But if a product can’t be commercialized, it causes me much reason to be concerned for its future.
I hope this makes sense. I understand that there may not be anything anyone on the Defold team can do right now about it.