"GPL zealot" is an unnecessary term. You make your choices, others make theirs. It's fascinating how much energy you are wasting commenting on an article that follows a philosophy that you seem to reject so strongly.
OP wasn't rejecting the basic philosophical underpinnings of the Librem project, but merely noted the inconsistency with which they applied those principles.
Librem could have developed a pure FOSS machine if they'd chosen to do so. However, it'd have a RISK-V based chip and a bunch of other exotic components that would have rendered impractical for regular use.
Instead, Librem took the pragmatic route and chose to adopt a number of proprietary components including an Intel CPU. Despite this, they chose to bypass Intel when choosing a WiFi chip at the cost of being unable to support modern WiFi standards.
It doesn't really make a lot of sense.
Not sure what you mean. Are you aware of any other WiFi adapters supporting free firmware?