I was thinking about the ones originally released rather than derivative
works in relation to the binary being embedded in a GNU GPL'd driver and thus
not really being 100% free. This mainly due to the fact people are linking to
these GNU GPL'd drivers, investigating the source, not finding any firmware,
and concluding it's 100% free, or even just assuming because it is under the
GNU GPL driver it must be 100% free.
I'll make a 2nd comment on my thoughts on the size of the non-free component.
I don't feel this is acceptable either. Separate or not, big or small, a
non-free component is still non-free.
That said in my mind the whole movement is about freeing as much code as
possible. Doing that and enabling people to get to that point is key.
Actually achieving a situation where everything is 100% free is unlikely at
the moment. That doesn't mean we shouldn't shoot for that.