On the other hand freedom is a really nice word that everyone loves whereas "libre" is some fake French or something that you have to try to pronounce with some kind of rolled r like is that really going to succeed in the American marketplace of ideas

It isn’t fake. Libre is a real french word that means “free to do [something]” or “free from [something],” along with a few other meanings.

I do think the pronunciation issue is going to hamper its adoption, though. If it’s pronounced as it is in French, it’s very similar to how we say the zodiac sign “libra,” but if you don’t know it’s french, it could easily be Spanish/Italian/Latin and be pronounced “leebray.”

The fact that it’s not an easy word to know how to pronounce means that people who have only read it will be hesitant to use it in conversation or public speech.

In fact, it is also a Spanish word, roughly pronounced "leebray" (in Italian and Latin it's different, though).

In fact, just learned now that it's supposed to be loaned from French, I had always assumed it to be from Spanish (I'm biased because I'm Spanish).

> just learned now that it's supposed to be loaned from French

Is it? According to https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html

‘We sometimes call it “libre software,” borrowing the French or Spanish word for “free” as in freedom’

Exactly. The "French Way" thing is an affect that's frequently mocked on other forums, see https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/le