Not detracting from the point you're making, but the kernel side for Nvidia drivers for Linux is published on GitHub, by Nvidia. The userspace side is still delivered as pre-compiled binaries, tough.
You're right. But that's a somewhat recent (2 years) release and not compatible with as many GPUs as their closed source kernel side ones drivers, which are still on version parity.
My 1080Ti isn't compatible with those drivers, so I do forget about the open sourced ones.
My 1080Ti isn't compatible with those drivers, so I do forget about the open sourced ones.