I see no problem with recommending Debian with proprietary firmware to people who have (alas) purchased devices incompatible with solely free software. Ideally, all our devices would work with free software and we'd all be running Trisquel, but that is simply not the case. The vast majority of people would be unwilling to throw away that nice new laptop they just bought for the cause of freedom- but that doesn't mean we should just refuse to help them as much as possible. Running Debian (even with proprietary firmware) is clearly preferable to running, say, Windows.
One of the arguments deployed against Debian by the FSF is that the existence and incorporation into documentation of the contrib and non-free repositories by the Debian Project can lead many astray, tempting them to install non-free software- the gateway effect. But the gateway effect works the other way, too. When a Windows user (unaware of the cause of freedom) migrates to Debian, she immediately sees the DFSG being thrown about, non-free software being discussed in the forums and the documentation, and this inevitably leads to exposure and at least some sort of awareness of the cause of freedom. Ideally it would be made clear to the new user by the recommender that Debian is not the final solution, and the next computing device bought should support free software, but even if this is not the case, she will be exposed to the cause. This is what happened with me. I was a Windows user. I decided (my hatred for Windows 8 having reached fever pitch) to switch to 'Linux', as I then called it. So I switched to Debian with proprietary firmware to support my nice new flashy laptop, and became aware of the cause of freedom through Debian. I then switched back to using my old machine running Debian with only main enabled, and then settled on Trisquel. Debian was what instigated my free software journey. Debian is unique amongst the distros that distribute non-free software in the way it is clearly separated out and discouraged. The inclusion of non-free software was always inevitable in a project that size- the convenience panderers were bound to win. There is no good way to include non-free software, but Debian did it the best. I agree though, that here is no place to be advocating non-free software in any way, shape, or form. As unfortunate as the use of Debian is, it is a useful gateway measure to win more over to the camp of freedom.
