

Reticulum is pretty much developed by a single person. An immensely impressive feat for an individual but meshtastic seems to be developed by a wider group of people.
Also, if you want to use the true mesh aspects of reticulum without just tunneling it over the existing internet infrastructure then you’re going to want to buy some LoRa devices anyway.









You don’t have to pay meshtastic any money, so I’m not sure how they’re profiting.
Remember that no man is an island. There is no way to be completely free of dependence on others and that once you’ve bought a LoRa device, there’s nothing they can do to stop you using it as you see fit.