If I want to make a case for a software to be included in our stack I don't want to constantly run into paywalls while trying out the product but I also don't want to go through the hoops of getting a licence (because of internal bureaucracy).

Yeah, understand the use cases you are pointing to. We are planning to introduce a foss only version of the product for users who know that they won't be need the enterprise version. It will not have any enterprise bits, and you could just keep using it as you want. Something similar to this - https://github.com/PostHog/posthog-foss