Except even firmware that comes with the hardware may be updatable somehow. I believe that firmware should be free, but refusing to ship blobs for this reason,

Except even firmware that comes with the hardware may be updatable somehow. I believe that firmware should be free, but refusing to ship blobs for this reason, while still attempting to be compatible with hardware that buries them under the covers (even when the blobs not being shipped are updates for the very same hardware - e.g. all major x86 CPUs), is burying one's head in the sand. Would be more principled to avoid hardware with proprietary firmware entirely, and advocate for both documented hardware and 'free' (i.e. open HDL etc.) hardware.