Actually there are a few bright spots on the horizon. RISC-V is gaining mindshare, and I've seen separate events/papers which push for using modified RISC-V cores as specialised processors, similar to eg. The Nintendo64 which used MIPS cores. If that gains traction then there's a good chance that the software will improve.

On the radio side of things, Dash7 firmware will run on many Lora devices, meaning you don't have to use the proprietary Lora software.