For me, a cheap European student, this will always be the biggest upside for open-source. Free as in speech is important, sure, but free as in beer is undescribable to a young person who wants to tinker, experiment and create stuff, without having the ability to pay for all the newest tools.

I still am sometimes reminded of the quote, "Every digital artist's career started by pirating Photoshop". Actual individual people can't afford to pay all these fees, but their future career may depend on having the experience with said tools.