> Removing freedom to see the source might not effect peoples choice it's self I agree, but really why should it also effect the quality of the software?
We are in violent agreement. Freedom to see the source is entirely orthogonal to quality. However, the space of implementations is not fully populated; there are domains in which there is only a (good, closed) solution and a (poor, GPL) solution (this is in no way a criticism of the quality of GPL'd software in general; there are also domains with only a (good, open) solution, or where the GPL solution is significantly better than all competitors). It's not unreasonable for some users to prefer the (good, closed) tool in that situation.
We are in violent agreement. Freedom to see the source is entirely orthogonal to quality. However, the space of implementations is not fully populated; there are domains in which there is only a (good, closed) solution and a (poor, GPL) solution (this is in no way a criticism of the quality of GPL'd software in general; there are also domains with only a (good, open) solution, or where the GPL solution is significantly better than all competitors). It's not unreasonable for some users to prefer the (good, closed) tool in that situation.