You pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Those people that put in their time here, regardless of payment, deserve the hats off for what they do. It's really the necessary mind set to be a long standing member in the steemit society.

The flip of this is that it's then up to this creator how much time and effort (and sometimes cost) on whether to continue. Like you said, the market/community decides the value. Sometimes even superior products can fall by the wayside for those that were simply first, adopted by larger users/businesses, or just a better UI. (I've not used the SQL products much myself, so I'm by no means stating a judgement between steemSQL or mango db here.)

Sorry for the babble. Lol

Tl;Dr
Yes, market sets the price... And the creator can choose to stop their service or product to focus on other things. Regardless of any luck or timing, we've still always got our choices to make. :-)