this has nothing to do with feeling entitled to get things for free, it's more an internal feeling that computing has divided itself into an interesting and vibrant ecosystem of open source software, and proprietary products that are in some sense the equivalent of a neighbourhood diner - they might actually be very nice, and are surely of interest to people who live in said neighbourhood, but they are never going to be relevant to me in any real way. being closed just sucks all the excitement out of things - i can, as you say, sit back and enjoy it the way i would a piece of art, but i can't summon up any enthusiasm about using it.
(if there were a book about it i would totally buy and read that, though; i do enjoy the fact of its existence and the community around it, and stories about its development and growth continue to be fascinating.)