I believe macOS, Linux, and Windows now all come with standard CDC (USB Serial) drivers built-in, so typically there's no need to install drivers from FTDI, Prolific or anyone else. Or am I missing something here?
Microsoft lets hardware vendors use Windows Update to automatically push their own drivers onto the computers of anyone who uses said hardware, even if they were already working just fine with a generic driver.
I think there is a driver bundled with OSX but (and I don't remember why) I did end up having to get a driver from Prolific. My use case is mostly running proprietary apps in an ancient Windows VM.
In any case both Prolific and FTDI have open source mac and Linux drivers (can't speak to the Windows drivers). This would all be a lot less contentious if the clones would use non-official USB vendor and product IDs. For all the teeth gnashing about drivers not working with clones I think there ought to be more focus on the people trying to pawn off crappy clones as the real deal.