What keeps things open source / free software in practice is not a philosophical desire for freedom but the very practical desire to be able to get things done.

What keeps things open source / free software in practice is not a philosophical desire for freedom but the very practical desire to be able to get things done. That's why the Linux kernel is so popular and there is an open source ecosystem for systems tooling and web dev libs and all that. Not because people are hippies who want everything to be free (as in gratis) but because it's just so much easier than going through convoluted licensing requirements. In the end it's just evolution. If there is a free and open tool doing something better than some hard-to-license alternative, or at least well enough, then it will win. Once there isn't then the proprietary alternative will win in the space. In other words, once the demand for open hackable mobile phone ecosystems is high enough, they will be open and hackable. The demand is just not there. Similar for other areas raised in threads in here.