Yes, you are right. I personally come, admittedly, from a more "idealistic" background. A few years back, I tried to create a trading card game, that was meant to be open source, meaning maintained and developed by the community. I was not the only one who tried (and failed. afaik, no one succeeded.). The question if and how a developer of such a game can profit is important, but I am not sure whether I am the person who has to provide the answer.
As you can see with the lisk-thread progressing, it is not completely clear whether we are still talking about a trading card game. Other aspects, like the idea of factions fighting over delegates positions, might be far more interesting in the end.