That sounds promising. It's still a legitimate gripe since it requires a new system installation. But it's good that future shipments can be rid of some of these issues and I would be forgiving of hiccups like this too.
As for open source; I think that unless you have a large company then you need outside help and open source can be part of that plan. Not knowing much about the development of AROS, I don't know how much of a difference it has made. Open Source projects in Linux land struggle sometimes too. And linux itself, while open source, thrives becasue of the huge commercial backing it receives. Even Microsoft wants their hypervisor supported by linux and has contributed code.
If open source would make a difference, I would think it needs to happen soon. The older I get the more I turn my attention to family and society and less towards technology. Are the youth going to pick up the torch? I doubt it.