because otherwise big tech companies will take it and modify and release hardware with it without releasing patches etc? Basically being selfish and greedy?
It does. There is an implied expectation that the recipient will will not be selfish. They can pay it back, pay it forward, possibly later when they can afford it, etc., but they are expected not to be selfish and also give someone something eventually.
Because unlike most other functionality, you generally need hw specs or cooperation to write drivers (see Nvidia GSP).
Anyone can write Photoshop (provided reasonable resources). The problem is going to be proprietary file format and compatibility with the ecosystem. It's same with hardware, except several orders of magnitude worse.
because otherwise big tech companies will take it and modify and release hardware with it without releasing patches etc? Basically being selfish and greedy?
Does this happen to freebsd? I know plenty of closed source Linux drivers.
Isn't that basically every router out there?
It is neither selfish nor greedy to accept and use a gift freely given to you.
Receiving a gift does not confer obligations on the recipient.
True, but you would probably still be pissed if somebody took your gift and hit you over the head with it.
It does. There is an implied expectation that the recipient will will not be selfish. They can pay it back, pay it forward, possibly later when they can afford it, etc., but they are expected not to be selfish and also give someone something eventually.
Because unlike most other functionality, you generally need hw specs or cooperation to write drivers (see Nvidia GSP).
Anyone can write Photoshop (provided reasonable resources). The problem is going to be proprietary file format and compatibility with the ecosystem. It's same with hardware, except several orders of magnitude worse.