just to be clear here. we are not debating WHO it is that would agree to something like this in the first place and quite honestly the HOW isn’t much of a problem for people in this line of work. we can speculate ad-infinitum here without proof and we would never reach a consensus. my tin-foil hat remains on when it comes to non-free code (hardware and software alike).
there is so much that has already been discussed elswhere and by more apt people that it is a drag to keep this up.
the question of morality between free and non-free has already been set in stone. now if the state-of-the-art in free software is not yet there compared to non-free software then that is simply a matter of RND and constant innovation as you’ve pointed out above but there is NOTHING inherently superior about non-free code.