GNU only stipulates that the code must be released. Whether it is as an inconvenient dump of a well structured code history is not specified.

Google has stopped releasing parts of android as open source and it releases some as a code dump without the modification history to make harder to use. Android forks are going to struggle to keep up.

Hydrogen is hard to contains long term, it leaks through most materials. I’m no expert on the matter but I suspect the gains in lift would be partly negated by the changes to the envelope of the container.

Gnome also has a few nice things that I miss whenever I try kde or cosmic. It really depends on what you need from your DE.