> because the relative freedom level of a software license matters far more to us than it does to actual end users

Nah, it's not that simple.

Ever saw a giant chorus singing "oh almighty developers please make this and that" for tiny features? I think every other product support forum is just like that. And I also saw situations when someone on the outside had hacked features that weren't provided by original developers. Both free software projects and proprietary software.

So freedoms actually matter to the "common folk", they just don't consciously recognize that and surely they don't know the terminology.