I disagree that ResetEra couldn't be community-owned. I'm no business law expert, but I'm sure there could have been some system like a private corp where we could optionally buy-in to voting shares.
Back in 2017-2018 there were some of us who were already concerned with the lack of transparency and the profit motivations of the leadership, but most people didn't care to think about it. I had
suggested back then that ResetEra become a not-for-profit org and all excess revenue be donated to charities. I think some sort of foundation, similar to open source foundations and the like, would have served the long-term interests of the community much better than Cerium's profit-focused motivations.
But we never even got the chance to have that discussion with Cerium. He wasn't interested in the community.