True, but if you're using N900 in corporate environment the freedom is quite attractive. It is also possible to vote with your money as consumer, just a bit harder. That is why I endorse a donation-based system where the users like you and me, being part of community, can vote with their wallet. Because sometimes a feature or a bugfix is worth some money.
Yes, OSS also supported sound cards which ALSA did not support. X.Org also still does not fully support some graphics cards. It is all a matter of 1) developer itch or financial incent 2) rarity of hardware or feature. If PA or KDE4 or ALSA doesn't cut it for you, you use the predecessor (legacy software) instead. There is nothing wrong with that, and there is nothing wrong with running an old, stable version of an OS. I also gave PA as example because it supports audio over network seemingly. There is no such thing for OSX or Windows, while PA is ported to OSX and Windows.