PCC....See no reason to be "sorry for the rant". You're being friends with the folks at Freedom more than explains your position.
I really haven't seen anyone bashing the Freedom products or the people on this site who have elected to use them. The controversy that has run throughout this thread seems to come from two issues. First is the Freedom "knockoff" of the original Rinehart headers. The second, and probably more destructive to any credibility that Freedom may have, outside of a very limited and at most regional marketshare acceptance is their pitching "secret" grinds and modifications. This isn't the old days where uniformed bike enthusiasts followed the crowd to a "secret builder" for a "secret mod" to get ahead of the pack. Thanks to the internet, sites such as this and professional development companies such as Jim's, Zippers, Andrews and S&S, just to name a few, who have invested millions of dollars into improving performance products, owners interested in a performance build have become educated.
I think you cleared up a lot of the mystery on the "secret" nature at Freedom when you explained that "they don't care if you buy their stuff". Obviously, that's correct as I can't think of any owner or legitimate builder who would step up to the checkbook chasing a phantom upgrade cam. The drag racing analogy doesn't hold water. These aren't competitive race cams and can be "spec'd" in a matter of minutes by anyone familiar with cam design.
I think the "attitude" that you refer to in the postings is the result of Freedom not presenting a straightforward representation of their product for comparison by some very mechanically sophisticated members. Basically, people who have been around bikes a long time also and are capable of making an informed decision based upon fact.
Being friends with Freedom, you may be able to end the controversy and ask them to post the specs, expected result with various upgrade combinations and their independant dyno testing. No room for controversy there.
Just my view of an equitable ending to a very long and never ending debate.