All these authors and no one has mentioned the Known Space series by Larry Niven!
Personally I would start with Protector, then Crashlander, then head into Ringworld and the rest.
It’s a little dated in places and he’s not great at writing women, but it’s got some good heavy sci-fi ideas in. The Ringworld megastructure is a fun thing to contemplate.
Yikes, how Draconian. Id be fucking pissed if someone came in and forcibly open sourced a product I had invested millions in developing.