* call it open source

Exactly. Even if they have good intent and just want to “own” their project, it’s going to look dishonest and make users angry.

To be fair, accepting contributions from outside folks requires a well-designed legal framework. Otherwise it's a legal mess. It could be that they just don't have it in place for folks outside the company.

Definitely not a new trick, Apple has had Public Source for decades. I was going to suggest forking it and building it yourself, but there's a proprietary library for the fingerprint reader. 🤔 Maybe Blocks can at least reproduce the build, though I'm not sure how reassuring it would be if there were a 3rd party blob.