You seem to be conflating two separate things - the question of whether the core principles of GNU, Linux and other 'free' software are important, and whether t

You seem to be conflating two separate things - the question of whether the core principles of GNU, Linux and other 'free' software are important, and whether they have been achieved. Venomsnake's point very much seems to fall into the latter category - having devices that you need to jump through hoops, exploit holes etc, in order to be able to get full access to them is hardly a 'victory' for Linux (even if those devices are mostly running a form of Linux). You seem to be trying to argue against this by saying those principles aren't important to most people. That may or may not be true - but regardless of that, it's not achieving what Linux set out to deliver.