I'd have to disagree on a lot of that. Spinning off/selling products to smaller companies is most likely not an option. I was in vertical market software for twenty years. Original programs like Muse started with a lot of existing code from other products and/or hooks to work with other product. Selling off those lines also means selling code and that then can (and probably would) become the foundation of a competitor for programs Adobe needs and/or knowledge of Adobe's development methods. Like selling the gun, the bullets, and the blueprints for everything you have to your enemy. It's not so cut and dried to sell off a product. Just not an option. I'm sure Adobe would have loved the cash but it is just more complicated than that.
Muse was a dead end. Adobe is on the inside of HTML development, programming technologies and sees where that is going. They see things we won't see for years and have better insight into where to go than we do. Muse had reached a point where further development would be a waste of money as the next iterations of HTML and other web technology would make it worse than a "dinosaur", it would be a battleship anchor tied to every user. I go back to the Macromedia days and had the same frustrations with a number of products that were killed. I spent a fortune on classes and countless hours with Director...then it went away. "Poof" just like that. I was frustrated for sure but, later saw where coding was going and it was the right move. Add to that a list of others that went away that I also spent a fortune in time and money learning and using. Outside of Director, let's take a look at what all these, Muse included, have in common. Each was made to try and let people that were not developers be able to get into the web market in an easy manner BUT, easy has limitations, it can only go so far. I have been in software and hardware a lot of years, been consulting in businesses of all sizes, especially big ones, manufacturing floors etc and can use this analogy when talking about Muse; it is like why you see PC's in business and not Apple...Apple products are good at what they do because they don't do much. Let's say you start building a web site for a client. That web site helps that company grow and then they need a more robust solution...Muse would hit a wall and the client would be stuck while you figured another alternative. Are they going to wait while you beg for someone to write another "widget"? Should they? You are an artist that used something easy to knock out the simple sites and are not ready for the next step. The very nature of a web business is to help a client to grow, Muse would absolutely hit a wall. Muse wasn't designed to scale. Where would you be then? You lose a client who has to go to a company that can continue their growth and they now have added expense of having to start over completely with a solution that can scale and a company that can scale it (code centric companies). All the arguments show you are thinking of you, not your client, whether you realize it or not.
Look, I suggest everyone look at this as a blessing. Most Muse users are artists first. You had a chance to dip your toe in the web development market and see if you have a taste for it. Ask yourself; "have I discovered that coding is actually an art form itself? Do I recognize its beauty and embrace it with the same passion as I do my graphics, painting, writing, film making?" If so, you will look forward to continuing your journey. You will have new and creative (and commercially viable) ways to express your creative side. If not, you have been given the chance to grow yourself in a way you would never have done without Muse, with new knowledge of who you are, in a new direction. Let's face it, at the end of the day, Muse was a vehicle for you to peddle your artwork, your passion. That really is what it comes down to, and your easy tool for doing what you are passionate about. Those flowers you put on your table were great but didn't last forever. Now you can either get all the way in, with the knowledge of what that entails OR, you have a new and more powerful way to peddle your art. You can easily work, and sell yourself, to those who stay in the web development, or advertising, marketing, educational material, etc because you speak their lingo, you understand their issues, their problems, are able to give knowledgeable advice, have experience of what works for clients and what doesn't. You have strong consulting skills that set you way above other artists you would otherwise have to compete against. You would have never developed those skills being an artist alone, Muse gave them to you. I've been in sales and training for longer than most of you have been around and I'll give you a very good definition of what you need to be good at sales, it boils down to this "find their pain, and ease it". Muse has let you step away from a purely artist to new and deep perspective of the world and business. You now have new skill sets that are in high demand. Either continue growing in the development business, with tools that scale, or be a supplier of graphics and consulting to those that do. Either way, you have been equipped to succeed.
The original idea of Muse was to be "so easy, anyone can do it". Well, guess what, anyone can do it, kind of leaves you with an ocean of competition down there at the bottom of the pyramid. Now you get to go where others can't because you have new skill sets and perspective that "everyone" doesn't have. Change your perspective on these tools and where they are in the flow. When I was in high school, I spent my summers as a trim carpenter, there were no power miter saws back then, you had a twenty dollar "miter box" and a hand saw to make every cut. When Makita came out with the first power miter saw, at an exorbitant price, my brother and I ran out and got one. When we showed up on the job site, all the other carpenters just laughed at us, "three hundred seventy five dollars for a saw?". We could now work at four times the previous pace. Within a year, everyone that stuck with the "old way" was gone, you either moved with technology or died. If anything, it is time to say "Thank you Adobe, for giving me the tools and opportunity to grow and gain new insight and opportunity". Complaining is just a negative that does not serve your life. If you are complaining, you are just wanting time to stand still for you and, it will never do so, you are those guys that laughed at the new saw.
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