Again this is mixed causality. Rails did not take off because of commercial interests – besides dhh who was working on it on the side, all the initial committers were doing that for fun.
Eventually they brought rails in many commercial companies and these companies succeeded to the point they could pay people to maintain rails.
To be fair to RubyCentral, this year's RailsConf was the last one they have planned, though it's likely that they'll shift focus to on RubyConf in its place
Eventually they brought rails in many commercial companies and these companies succeeded to the point they could pay people to maintain rails.