Complex puzzle, I feel a key part is that the financing / financial sustainability of free software has not been solved. The author touches on it a bit by saying "when you sell hardware..." which kinda means no hardware == no revenue since you can't sell the software. I don't discount that Redhat is a thing, but it is the exception not the norm.

Free Software doesn't imply someone has to write what I need for me for free.

It means that if the end user wants to control his devices he/she should be able to.

I do see it on exactly same way. A lot of people are conflating opensource with free. That model is not really sustainable if you want to do it for living.