For a long time, the right strategy for GNU was to build a basic unix replacement differentiated primarily by licensing. As software goes, the core of unix is a simple architecture, reflecting its history as a design first realized by a very small team of people.

Well, that part's done and the strategy won.

Nowadays, the proprietary competition is about databases, and productivity apps, and browsers, and middleware layers. The software we're competing against is not like unix: it isn't simple; it wasn't built by a small number number of people; it's a moving target. It isn't a tractable project to clone this proprietary software under different licensing.

If the goal is still "(a) build a free alternative to proprietary software", then a new strategy is called for: competition on _software_architecture_, not just licensing.