IMHO RMS’s socially abrasive attitude and communication style, and the overall unapproachability of the FSF, goes a way toward ensuring that anyone that can stomach advocating for “the cause” is similarly abrasive. This is to the point where some people conflate being a jackass with supporting Free Software as a movement or even as a concept. Like, aspects of some dude called Richard’s personality and even his proclivities wrt how he chooses to go about his computing life are cargo-culled by this decentralised group of fans. You see it here all the time. Someone will be talking about Free Software, and use this as a license to be an asshole to people.
There is in my experience a large silent majority that simply won’t engage with these conversations, not because they don’t see a legitimate place for the Free Software movement, but because the culture is so unnecessarily toxic and unapproachable on account of the people that it puts on a pedestal. It certainly puts others off from the actual principles of the movement altogether.
Time was, computing was for entirely socially adjusted - primarily - women. I as much as possible try to see the period of dominant industry voices being overrun with socially awkward asshole nerds to be a blip rather than an origin story or an ongoing necessity. At this stage I think we are at the point where continuing to give these people a social platform just because of some sense of prestige is not the way to go.