Yes ears are different. And eyes. And preconceptions. That is subjectivity. If you want to know what is actually better you need to eliminate those biases. e.g. in audio the standard is an A/B test where the test plays audio from 2 sources at the same volume through the same headset and the recipient has to choose which is best without knowing anything else. Done properly you’ll know if there is a measurable, objective difference between the two sources. Double blind is even better.

The issue for audiophiles is that this is not the way things are done. More often they’re sold snake oil - hyper expensive audio cables, beech wood knobs, concrete turn table bases etc. Things that do precisely do fuck all to improve audio quality except in their imaginations.

Exactly. Open source is fine when it suits them but not fine when it doesn’t.

The way audiophiles tell sound quality is 99.99% subjectivity and 0.01% objectivity.

I can agree with some arguments about the rental market, or laws about rent protection / rights. But rent in itself is not theft. Somebody wanting to live in somebody else’s property whether it’s for the night, a week or a year has to pay for it, or go buy their own place to stay in.

Not everywhere can wean itself off, but the “big three” cloud compute companies arent the only shows in town. And of course there is a multitude of free and open source replacements for commercial software with companies willing to provide support.

I would not be surprised at all if they’d have a backdoor way to filch data, or the key with which to decrypt backed up data.