Not touching for a moment whether or not Keybase “did it right”, but, very simply: without a good revenue model, their only other option was to eventually go out of business. They were default-dead, near as I can tell from outside looking in.

You can do all the open source e2e crypto trendiness you like, but unless you’re a nonprofit like Signal that can generate a stream of donations, if you don’t eventually get people to pay you for the service, you’re not going to be able to stick around.

This was the best possible outcome for them, given the circumstances.