Commercializing research results in the form of software products is a common exploitation path that drives innovation and also targets economic goals. This research provides insights on the relation of software architecture evolution with respect to the commercialization of academic open source software. Using a mixed-methods study of JackTrip, a real-time networked audio software transitioning from academia to commercial use, we i) assessed its structural decay via static analysis of 19 historical versions (2015–2022) and ii) investigated potential reasons via developer interviews. The static analysis reveals escalating architectural smells and dependency volatility despite optimistic metrics, coinciding with pandemic-era commercialization. Interviews highlight tensions between legacy constraints and modernization efforts, leading to workarounds that complicate maintainability. Hybrid governance struggles to balance the mix of contributors and commercialization goals, while documentation gaps impede onboarding and refactoring. Our findings underscore erosion risks for academically rooted OSS: real-time constraints, rapid undocumented growth, and interdisciplinary contributions amplify technical debt. JackTrip exemplifies trade-offs between innovation and sustainability in dual academic-commercial settings, offering insights into erosion drivers in such projects. This work calls for deeper research on managing architectural sustainability in interdisciplinary OSS.