there is no free lunch, remember?
maybe a free beer, but not the lunch, nope
why do we get free Linux / GNU on our PCs?
again, Novell / SuSE or RedHat need openSUSE / Fedora to maintain existing features or develop new ones.
Novell's fate proves how difficult that can be and it is not like RedHat is thriving, neither.
well, can't blame (open-)SuSE for Novell's demise. Novell has been on a lost positions since m$ took over corporate LANs and WANs. but SuSE's acquisition by Novell in the 1st place is the actual indication that surviving solely by providing free software... isn't a good business model, nope

but if RedHat or Novell were treating their communities like NOKIA... i guess "Hanlon's razor" applies here too. NOKIA isn't mean, they have simply no clue how to manage a community of developers.

[EDIT]: or how to develop software and hardware in parallel
mind yourself, hw companies like IBM or HP don't have a free OS. the OSes come licensed pretty heavily and that's why both are on the LF comity too
both need to support their HW on Linux / GNU too & adapt their SW & services (aka.........................
YES ecosystem) to it.
[/EDIT]

alas

so the openSUSE / Fedora model is out.
it will be up to the community (council, anyone?) to lead the charge