Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mirroring is not difficult, I've done it in order to perform code analysis on plugins at scale.
Well, it definitely becomes harder when you cannot (officially) access any of the WP infra, including themes and plugins.
The cost of providing free ice-cream to WPengine is $218,685 or 7.9% of wordpress.org total income! ($2,768,057). But if the people eating up all the ice-cream you give them for free take you to court.... then you gotta cut off that ice-cream. WPengine should apologise and starting slinging cash to Automattic.
WordCamp expenditures: $2,159,747 (82.81% of total expenses)
Meetup expenditures: $229,571 (8.80% of total expenses)
Total Meetup.com dues: $224,249
Total Meetup Venue rental & exp: $5,322
Operations: $218,685 (8.39% of total expenses)