I’m a single dude who sells custom electronics with open source software on them. I sell maybe two PCBs a month. It just about covers my hobby, I’m not even living off of it. I can’t afford commercial licenses. There has to be tiers.
In return, I’ve made every schematic, gerber file, and bill of material to my stuff freely available.
It kinda does matter if you want updated drivers and packages and stuff. I use Debian because I love its bare bones, generic approach and I’m used to it, but I’d never recommend it for anyone playing the latest games unless they like cruising five years in the past.