Businesspeople tend to assume that secrets are assets.
But the value of holding a secret has to be traded off against the cost of doing so. That cost includes foreclosing the possibility of independent peer review, and betting your company on a product that is dramatically less reliable than it could have been as open source. Perishable Goods Yes. Closed software and trade secrets make short-term sense in areas where serious research is required. So the cost of forgoing independent peer review is relatively low.