I don't disagree with you (I've written plenty of GPL-licensed software), but as someone who gets paid to develop products for other companies, it's an issue. Few of my customers are interested in making the embedded software for their product open source.
Actually the MIT open source license (and other similar ones) solves a completely different problem for me. It allows me to reuse this software for many different customers. It's slightly easier to do this when I tell them that I'm going to use "this open source library" vs. "my personal library that I'm granting you a license for this product, but I retain the right to use it for other customers".
Actually the MIT open source license (and other similar ones) solves a completely different problem for me. It allows me to reuse this software for many different customers. It's slightly easier to do this when I tell them that I'm going to use "this open source library" vs. "my personal library that I'm granting you a license for this product, but I retain the right to use it for other customers".