When it comes to non-free firmware I think there's two reasonable positions - treat it like non-free code running on a remote system (suboptimal, outside the scope of current free software priorities) or treat it like software running on the primary CPU (all code on the local system should be free software, no matter where it's running). I think the FSF's position is unreasonable: https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/70895.html
@mjg59 Fun anecdote: A friend of mine once tried to get a certain piece of open hardware RYF-certified. At the time Linux would run on the hardware, without free GPU acceleration. The shipping software/firmware did not include any nonfree components.
They rejected it because users could hypothetically install nonfree GPU drivers. They said if he could get the GPU permanently fused off, they'd certify it.
It was never certified. A few years later, free GPU drivers were available. Had he followed the FSF's ridiculous demand, users would have owned an intentionally crippled piece of hardware and lost the ability to have free GPU acceleration in the future, once it existed.
@marcan @mjg59 By that line of reasoning that hardware should still not be certifiable because users could _still_ replace the free driver with the nonfree driver. Taking that thought further I could void any device's certification by releasing a nonfree driver, never mind thst a free one exists. The opportunities for trolling are endless 
@marcan @mjg59 That...seems really backwards. I like the idea of "free software" firmware, but going scorched earth on anything that doesn't fall under a particular definition just bothers the hell out of me. I can totally see not offering support out of the box, but forcing it to be hard-disabled "in case" just means that the user now...can't do what they want with the hardware they bought.
@marcan @mjg59 they also have blacklists for "bad software" on some of their "certified distros", and don't allow distros like Gentoo to be certified despite being able to be installed without any proprietary software and by default don't allow installation of it without accepting the license, because they allow you to install proprietary software at all
