rms wasn't alone in this view that a non-gpl DE was unacceptable at the time. Also don't forget we're talking about an era where C++ was still largely despised

rms wasn't alone in this view that a non-gpl DE was unacceptable at the time. Also don't forget we're talking about an era where C++ was still largely despised for being a terrible and poorly supported language. The folks working on gtk/gnome were going to be living in C regardless of what fell out of rms.