yeah it's not that black and white in practice. we make all sorts of risk calculations when building in an ecosystem. some of these things are consistency, leadership, stability, etc.
free or not, if standards were maintained a certain way for a long period of time and then suddenly changed or are not applied consistently that is called a breach of trust and people are justified in expressing their anger and disappointment.
Are you 'justified' to decide to use your granted rights to step up and do something about what's bothering you? Yes. If you have enough energy, you can fork and gather people behind your version, to the point the original folds. Of course, you'll have to have a meaningfully different strategy about withdrawl of development services, otherwise no point. It's absolutely open to you to walk that walk.
Are you 'justified' in complaining you are no longer getting free services from a project you leeched? No. It's not even useful to you to do so.
free or not, if standards were maintained a certain way for a long period of time and then suddenly changed or are not applied consistently that is called a breach of trust and people are justified in expressing their anger and disappointment.