SSPL is not a free license

Yeah, it's the same principle, much like jumping the bottom three steps on your way down some stairs involves the same motion as jumping off a cliff. That doesn't make the results equivalent in any way, shape or form.

The SSPL doesn't limit its scope; heck it even says so, quite unequivocally. You have the source code to your UEFI bootloader, and the network card's firmware, and your backup software, and all the other stuff the license mentions and/or implies? No? Surprise: (almost) nobody has. Thus de facto nobody can provide networked services using SSPL'd software, thus the license limits what the software may be used for, thus SSPL'd code is not free by, well, basically every definition of Open Source out there.