Re: "SQL Anywhere - another product that nobody can see the point of."
MariaDB and Postgres are available as enterprise editions with subscriptions and vendor support, an enterprise edition with a support contract is an assurance of quality.
Now there is an abundance of graduates that have been using “free” Postgres (as an example) on a Raspberry pi or an old laptop running Centos since they were in short trousers and are now leaving Uni and joining the workforce having never had access to non-free products like SAP, IT hasn't gone backwards, it's just bloaty vendors like SAP and Oracle struggle to keep up.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
