Yes devices can do less than 10 years ago (less arbitrary thing), but they can also do more than 10 years ago. Of course the market in this segment might give you the feeling that everything is dumbed down. These devices are not used solely by very smart people. The most basic of all humans has a phone nowadays. And If apple decides to make MacOS only run singed binaries. That shows that they are targeting people who do not know how to run arbitrary code safely. I am a programmer and when I have to do that I have to think really hard. If my main PC runs stuff that I would rather not like to leave my house. I have to set up a VM and check it beforehand. You still have Linux to do whatever you want.
If people in the job market and Open Source community are getting exploited, it is only a matter of time until something develops to create a force against the exploitment. There are unions (at least there should be) and there are multiple ways to fund Open Source nowadays (Patreon, Gitcoin, Bountys,...).
It doesn't seem to me as everything is moving backwards. It is getting harder to live out the freedom of the individual. But on a macro level, I think things are moving forward.