Business & marketing are alignment mechanisms: to a first approximation, the closer you are to what people value, the more money you make, and that money is a signal that you're doing it right.
Like all alignment mechanisms (democracy, bureaucracy, etc.), these things only works to a first approximation — but they do work to a first approximation.
Making stuff (FOSS or otherwise) without caring about your audience leads to things like TempleOS, or the novel I've yet to finish writing (I'm never happy with what I've done despite having started it a decade ago already).
