It's funny (and sad, too!) that people are so surprised, because lots of activists and NGOs have been warning against proprietary software for decades, starting with Richard Stallman [0] and https://fsf.org and continuing with Cory Doctorow [1] and https://eff.org. If your hardware obeys somebody else, it will betray you sooner or later, one way or another to extract more money for the benefit of the actual owner.
[0] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-impor...