It depends on how you define "malware". This defines malware as "Software whose functioning mistreats the user".

I understand the point that's trying to be made. People use software because it provides value to them. I certainly have used or seen software that's abusive (anti-virus/malware products are pretty bad in this respect), and I don't use them.

Unfortunately, proprietary software generally has much more funding and thus can create a much better product than open source alternatives. A recent example for me was looking for an alternative to Lightroom Classic. I found a few different open source projects that replicated different aspects of Lightroom, but not provided the full feature set combining library management with raw editing.

The question then comes down to, how much privacy am I willing to sacrifice to get the extra value?

The answer to this question will be different for different people. As people become more and more privacy focused, we see additional pressure on companies that provide proprietary software to improve privacy in their applications.