Free software is so important to society that I believe the most reasonable solution is to provide for all people without their need to work for survival. Automate as much as possible such that work is not compulsory, and enough people simply want something to do (and possibly additional pay depending on how the system is arranged) that everything that needs to get done by people does get done.

For now that is fiction, but so is "if all software was free". I do think though that both would lead to a faster rate of innovation in society versus one where critical information is withheld from society to pay someone's rent and food bills.

Most software is free and makes no money - and that has always been the case. There are some very popular and widely-used non-free systems, but most software isn't that, and its developers still pay the bills.

This is somewhat analogous to music or books/literature. Most composers and performers and authors make no money from people copying and sharing their works. Some pay the bills working professionally for entities who want their product enough to pay for it; some do other things in life. Some indeed give up their work on music because they can't afford to not do more gainful work. And still, neither music nor books go away as copying them gets closer to being free.