The principles that made free software pay off for MIT will also work for any company that uses software but makes money from something other than software licenses. There are significant drawbacks to both options. Companies pursue the buy option because it will be easier and faster than building custom software. Nevertheless, buying the right software is a project in itself. When buying software, it is often difficult to determine which packages you want to look at seriously.
Marketing literature is often vague and unhelpful.
If you're lucky, you can download an evaluation copy either by paying a nominal sum, or by providing personal information so that their marketing people can contact you. If you're unlucky, you'll have to negotiate with them to obtain an evaluation copy. Free software avoids this drawback. If its home page doesn't describe it clearly, you can download the software itself, try it out, and even look at the source code to see if it does what you want. This is how I evaluated options before creating cgiemail.