I suppose RMS's came up in a very different time when it came to computing, and pre-modern-internet computing had much less an emphasis on security, but his takes on things like this always seem so bizarre to me.
Thinking about the circumstances of the time compared to today helped me to find relevance. We’re using GNU/Linux differently now than he was when that message was written. Symbolically, the ability to ”operate” the machine is provisional, and able to be taken away at any point by the true owner.