Interesting. I did not know this. I'll look more into it. Thank you. I agree their hardware is awesome so I will look into alternative firmware if possible.
I'd like to work on tailoring a mainline MicroPython build to their boards - to support their peripherals - but it has, so far, been low on my priority list.
As a MicroPython contributor I can't/won't use PyCom's fork because any code I develop for it cannot be accepted upstream.
I do like their hardware, it's a shame they chose to make their software licensing incompatible.