These "problems of philosophical nature that only free software geeks care about" however, tend to quickly have very practical consequences, that many people care about, though. Only that many do not realize, that their problems would not have happened, if they had used free software. Most people are not even aware what free software means or that it exists.

So I would not mix the two issues of a problem being a real problem and people's lack of knowledge about the software licensing world or software in general. Just because people don't know what the actual root cause is, it does not mean, that the problem does not exist, or that the people will not care about consequences, that will affect them.

I will also say,that without idealism of many great people creating free software and little pockets of free society, we would not be, where we are today. A very general statement, I know, but I have no doubt in my mind, that the idea of making knowledge freely available and making sure it stays that way does help advance society in many areas.