There might be a valid trademark dispute or legitimate concerns about WPEngine not contributing enough to open source. Or, maybe it’s simply about money and WordPress.com dropping the ball for the last decade. Ask yourself, what do you really think this is about?
The truth is, no one in the industry takes WordPress.com seriously for professional sites, and likely never will. It's often seen as a platform for simple blogs or taking advantage of users who don't know better where to go.
Agencies and developers, for instance, prefer to build custom sites using WordPress.org and then either self-hosting or go with WPEngine.
From the beginning, WPEngine has offered essential features like server-side backup snapshots (not relying on subpar plugins), along with Git, SFTP, and database access. In contrast, WordPress.com only introduced similar features relatively recently it seems.
The WordPress.com service has always completely missed the mark for what hardcore WordPress people want, and it’s comically essentially trying to finally now become what WPEngine offers today.
Meanwhile, WordPress.org has always been a bit of a mess for organizations to host, and WPEngine provided super peace of mind by solving those pain points. Literally the main reason for WPEngine's success is because of broken .org updates and easy backups - not tricked/confused developers. The irony is epic.
As for the trademark issues, maybe there's some truth over usage. But who’s really responsible for the fact that WordPress.org sites and people aren't opting for WordPress.com?
People don't go there not because they're confused but because it's just a deficient offering. Completely asleep at the wheel for the last 10 years.