This is all eerily familiar. I never experienced a conflict like that, but i have experienced the pressure of other people's wants on what was own project made for my own fun.

> This experience also highlights that ownership can be problematic in open-source. When a project is open-sourced, can it no longer be said that it still belongs to its creator?

Once it's open, it's no longer yours. If you want to keep it your own, never open it.

Opening projects you care about only leads to pain and suffering for you.