If you use the console target to create helpers for Xojo made apps, you don’t need Pro. You can create helpers with the lite version of Xojo. Some declares here and there are they good to go. Albeit I’ve only used 'em in a helper mode.
btw: They also don’t need their own set of plugins, so this saves on file size! Like 10 MB or more.
Sad to say but I’ve experienced similiar story with PowerBASIC in the 90ies. I loved PowerBASIC, I grew up with its predessor Borland Turbo-Basic written by Bob Zale in the 80ies before switching to Power-Basic. It was rocksolid, fast and stable and ahead of the time but then Windows and Win32 came along and since then it was on decline. Of course they brought a WinCompiler and from an advertising point of view it could still compete. The truth was, PowerBASIC as company was too small, too few devs couldn’t handle the demands of an growing ecosystem. Sounds familiar, eh?
Is there anything realistically that Xojo could do? Yes, Open Source everything! Xojo as Company is too small to maintain this project in all aspects and the love for details so needed.