The thing is, no one is arguing that propietary and closed is better than public and open. The problem comes when propietary and closed become the "better" option to the masses (faster, easier to use, more user friendly, more available, etc); at that point, you can protest, but average users don't like to give up convenience for ideology, hence on the long run the only way to beat closed and propietary is to have something public and open that can compete.