> Asking people to just unilaterally disarm by imposing no restrictions
I'm not asking for this. I'm asking for people who want such restrictions (most of which I consider entirely reasonable) to say so explicitly. It would be enough to replace words like "free" or "open" with "fair use", which immediately signals that some restrictions are intended, without getting bogged down in details.
Why? It seems you already know what people mean by "open and free", and it does have a connection to the ideals of openness and freedom, namely in the systemic context that I described above. So why bother about the terminology?
What people mean by words like "open" and "free" varies. It varies a lot, and a lot turns on what they actually mean.
The only sensible way forward is to be explicit.
Why fight this obvious truth? Why does it hurt so much to say what you mean?