"fully free" distros

IMHO, the only role for these "fully free" distros like NewSense is as a sort of benchmark to see what issues are left with respect to things like firmware, binary-only drivers, codecs and so forth. NewSense could be shown to hardware manufacturers to tell them "If you are serious about selling Linux-friendly machines, make sure everything in it is supported in this distribution".

For people who want to install GNU/Linux on hardware they *already* own, it strikes me as obtructionist and paternalistic to make it difficult for the user to employ whatever less-than-ideal workarounds are needed.

Linux Newbie: "Can you help me get my laptop's wireless working with your distro?"

Mint: "You mean you had to ask? Sorry, thought we did that for you."
Ubuntu: "That requires non-free firmware, which you should know is a problem, but click here and we'll take care of it for you."
Debian: "You need the non-free repository. Go there and figure it out - you're smart."
NewSense: "I don't know what you're talking about. RTFM"