Obviously, version two is better than version one in the technical sense, because it has more capabilities. But it is also obvious that version one does not deny its users any abilities that it affords instead to the vendor- neither the user nor the vendor can modify the firmware inside the device, so the vendor doesn’t exercise more control over the sold device than the user does. Obviously, the vendor designed the device, but that’s as far as their influence over it extends.

Version two, on the other hand, it programmable. This make it technically superior, but since the firmware is proprietary, the user is denied the right to view source code and modify the firmware, a right which the vendor continues to hold after the device is sold to the customer. In other words, the vendor has a right over the device under copyright law that the customer does not.

That’s not an ideal situation, and it’s the one the FSF is trying to prevent. You have every right to buy hardware with firmware encumbered by such restrictions, I have myself. But it’s not dumb to care about one day freeing yourself of such restrictions, and that won’t happen if no one is pushing back on the practice.

Surely you don’t think all free software was technically superior to all proprietary software at the start of the movement, and surely you don’t think it even is now. But if you still think it’s a good thing that we have the free software ecosystem, then perhaps you sometimes care about things other than pure technical superiority. If so, you ought to be able to understand the FSF’s position here.