The goal is to make it viable by developing enough of an ecosystem around it for it to be desirable by a wider audience. Accoutring to your approach, we wouldn't have free software at all, because it flies in the face of conventional economics. Someone with a little more vision had to prove it works, despite all the naysayers.

> if they don't want to be stuck in a box forever, whining about the "evil" Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.

If supporting a real hardware platform that is independent of "evil" Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. isn't taking practical steps to not be stuck with them, I don't know what is.