Allegedly, on or about 05 October 2016, JD sent:
I am wondering why they (and others like broadcom) keep their drivers proprietary.
Educated guess: Paranoia that it'll aid competitors, or that someone will find out they've copied someone else's work into their product.
From my perspective, of hardware that I'd want to use, graphics cards and printer drivers are the worst offenders. Virtually no manufacturer builds a device that is based an an existing scheme that can be directly supported and optionally improved, everything is a re-invention of the wheel.