Read what I said. The "end user" doesn't care in the slightest about source access. Everything the GPL is concerned about only matters to other developers, not to end users.
As an end-user, I do. Being prevented from fixing my own (expensive) device is not something I would voluntarily subject myself to. For context, here's a comment I posted a while ago (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13527205):
I used to be a big fan of permissive licenses until I bought a $700+ android phone a couple of years back and discovered that it did not "support" my native language (it could render the glyphs but system-wide support was not enabled).
Having extensive experience with unicode and how text is usually rendered, I knew exactly how to fix the issue; the fix was likely as simple as injecting an SO that hijacks a specific system library function. However, because the phone was locked down, I was unable to fix the problem myself. All important system apps including SMS and the browser displayed gibberish.
It was the most expensive brick I ever bought.
This experience taught me the true value of the GPL and why user freedom far outweighs the freedom of developers
You're suggesting that developers can't be users? Also, end users don't have to be the ones to fix things to benefit. If they're unhappy with something, they would have the freedom to pay a developer to customize their software however they like, or even get a skilled friend to work on it.
Being able to work on my own car is an important freedom, even if I don't know anything about cars. I can get a knowledgeable friend to look at it, or I can hire a mechanic, and it doesn't have to be a mechanic from the manufacturer.
Also, it doesn't matter how much of the population uses their freedom for it to be important.
