It's also beneficial for users of the systems, most of which are non-investors, that the lines do not change ever so often and the stops don't vanish or move several hundred meters.
Now, what one considers free is political. You cannot decouple reality from politics, and the free software movement is just one very specific example how political this really is. It's also these communities that generate politival movements that you may see as unrelated to the pieces of software in question.
It's also beneficial for users of the systems, most of which are non-investors, that the lines do not change ever so often and the stops don't vanish or move several hundred meters.