Again without getting into the debate on whether being free open source software is a good or bad thing for the blockchain, the writer(s) of the roadmap (from which I quoted) saw a need to make the claim of free (freedom) software at least twice. Therefore it was seen as important and as such it is important that a claim seen as important not be a misleading one, which in this case, it is.
Agree that the steemit.com code is indeed legitimately free open source software.