It's not a big negative from the consumer point of view. I've purchased some (3) and supported other (6) Gl.iNet products and they've been okay. Several times I have run into issues where the routers have effectively bricked the ability to update the firmware image, while continuing to operate with the outdated and insecure image still running. I've successfully un-bricked a few of them, but that can be a tricky task and takes a while.

They do seem to be complying with the license terms, and the free portions of the software can be downloaded from the Gl.iNet website.

Most of the negatives have been covered in other comments here.