If it gets “stolen” by a for-profit corporation it only makes it better, because now my software has reached more people, thus (theoretically) improving their lives.
well that's a very idealistic, and capitalistic way of looking at this (i.e. for-profit corporation is making a profit only because it's making people's lives better). which just isn't the case in real life.
realistically, when you release something in a permissive license, you are more likely to improve someone's bottom line, than to improve people's lives in general.