I guess this shows that RMS is no philosopher. If you want to promote openness in technology at such a fundamental level, I guess you need to start looking at how it fits into the bigger structure of ethics. You need to construct a consistent value system that includes all human rights and the tradeoffs between them.
I see no signs that RMS is going that far when forming his views. This makes him single minded, and I am tempted to say, even in a way very similar to religious zealots. I agree that open software and hardware can be good things. But you need to draw boundaries in practice. And when RMS seems to ignore these or moves them further out than anyone else would, he comes across as what you described so vividly.