You are correct, right now Arm has better software support etc. But how long will that last? The competition is not happy paying Arm large fees, and it may wel

You are correct, right now Arm has better software support etc. But how long will that last? The competition is not happy paying Arm large fees, and it may well happen in the long run that RISC-V will have a better eco-system. 5 years? 10 years? Arm is a small company (~6k employees) in comparison with some of its competitors. Arm giving free access is a sign that they are beginning to worry! Moreover there are geo-strategic considerations for some countries: what if global tensions rise and Arm gets strong-armed into withdrawing from selling to e.g. Baikal or Huawei?