>They can abide by the free license, or pay for a different license

Or... use a library that suffers none of these issues. :-)

My point is about the clause in the GPL that enforces developers to enclose the source of their entire software, not just the library. The LGPL however, does not require that, which is why the LGPL is also occasionally called "GNU Library License" (though the 'L' in LGPL stands for 'Lesser').

And lets not nitpick here, the GPL isn't exactly subtle about these things.

>If this library were not available under any sort of open-source license, would you be making the same post, insisting it's "bad" for them not to give you free stuff?

No. It's their right to choose whatever license they wish, but it's also my right to not choose their software.