So, freedom is only for the rich?

Freedom is sometimes efficient enough that it costs nothing to have freedom.

Other times, there are real or artificial barriers that mean freedom has a cost. In those cases, someone has to bear the cost or forego freedom.

In business there is no "cheap" or "expensive". There is only "worth the money" or "not".

That's not the point; the context of the post you replied to was people that "claim to want an open-source chip, but end up balking at its price tag".

Exactly, freedom isn't always the cheapest or most efficient.