No one said they shouldn't be. I mean, its not like there are laws saying they cannot be free. Patternson has always used too much hyperbole and marketing himself as a crusader. RISC-V is great, let the technology speak for itself.
With market forces being the way they are, the quality of technology is becoming increasingly irrelevant. What counts is having a dominant position so you can shove down your "product" right through everybody's throat.
Well not only that but choices about these kinds of things are often made by people that don’t necessarily know what options they have. Marketing is a big part of what choices people make because they don’t know what they don’t know
