this is in general a very good point. however as you mention there are certain differences in the products. one product is supposed to defend your country, and the fact that you do have little freedom over what weapons, upgrades and service you will use on the jet you probably put 120 - 150 mil, for starters, into, kind of put you into a, let's say vasal situation.can you name another major product (cisco IOS, junOS, windows OS platforms, etc) ... where source code is provided along with the product itself?
i understand the differences in comparison of the products i listed, but why should it be automatically assumed that firmware level/source-code be provided?
that's why i always say, let's wait and see. let's wait a couple of years (10 or more). and let's see what happens. there are many choices out there right now, and in 10 years there will be even more.