The fact that people often mix CyanogenOS with CyanogenMod is very unfortunate. (long rant incoming)
CyanogenMod was the community-driven opensource project.
CyanogenOS was a commercial project born from some CyanogenMod devs with deals with Microsoft at some points.
CyanogenOS raised controversies. At some point the name "Cyanogen" was tainted, the infrastructure was not available anymore and CyanogenMod had to re-brand/move to greener pastures or die: Enters LineageOS.
I never understood the idea behind CyanogenOS.
CyanogenMod was better/free/gratis/funnier than the commercial "similar" solution.
I might be wrong but isn't selling support a better alternative ? RedHat is selling support, not a commercial/paid version of Linux for example.
Also, couldn't they pick a distinct name like IndigoOS, Fuschia (ha!), Blues, RainbOS... ? At the time, it looked as if they were purposely misleading new comers. I blame them for that.
tl;dr: Forget Cyanogen*. LineageOS is all you need to remember. (that and copperheados and some other stuff)
There is a simillar story to be told with µBlock and uBlock Origin.
What Chris did is despicable. He basically hijacked a beloved project and turned it into a cash grab (µBlock)
That is why Raymond Hill had to create uBlock Origin and also is a hero to my eyes (like Blender leader and VLC leader).
I have no problem with people making money or doing scames out of libre, open-source but they should have the courage to create their own brand and build from here.
Hi-jacking a brand is despicable and saying basically "Yeah, I ruined the project but that is ok, you can fork the code" is not an acceptable answer.