That's not the only element, probably even not the most important one either. Historically, time after time, startups have been shuttered during M&A, acquisitions, or just when the founders got bored.

Whether that startup represented a tool in your workflow or a community, the only loser is the user. This goes beyond data portability even (the ability to export your data to another (centralized) tool).

Community can also be thousands of corporate users. If your company invested both time and money in integrating a tool and then the tool goes a different path, or shuts shop, you lose everything. That's the whole point of "exit to community", we need the ability to continue using as we did before. Even when a startup decides to go a different path with a new version.

Perfect example: Basecamp V2 and v3 are massively different, V2 users (all paying clients) were all offered the chance to stay on V2 rather than being automatically upgraded and forced to adapt their flow. In all their brilliant "stubbornness" of great founders, the Basecamp crew (SvN - Signal vs. Noise) do understand their community. The userbase, irrelevantly of whether they are "a community" or paying clients. It goes way beyond "a community".

End of the day it's all about respect. Respect for the user. Those who, indeed, the app a reason to exist.