FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD are behind Linux.
Look, I dislike permissive licenses too, but you need a source to back this claim up.
Right now, each BSD does something special, that Linux (distro's) can't trivially replace, even if the usecase is more niche. NetBSD Dev's make efforts to get it running on many devices as they can. OpenBSD (and it's subprojects) are highly secure, moreso than Linux. Who do you think makes our beloved OpenSSH? OpenSSH noted for having very few vulnerabilities over it's two decade long existence, and OpenBSD itself is similar, which is insane because there are products with multiple bad vulnerabilities every year (Linux being one of them...). This is due to a highly security minded architecture - one that Linux lacks.
FreeBSD is like Linux before systemd. I like systemd, but systemd is really trying to be kubernetes on a single node. I like systemd because I like kubernetes, but I understand why someone wouldn't like it, and I question if "single node k8s" is the best architecture for a single server or personal desktop. The ports system results in freebsd packaging many server services that aren't packaged on Linux. Being able to manage those through the system package manager, and the conviniences that provides, is nice.
Different, and not popular don't mean bad.
I've had similar experiences with this FPS game called krunker.io
Krunker.io is a browser based game, and it had a pretty bad cheating problem, and since it was a browser based gamr, the devs could never implement an anticheat that worked for long.
They implemented a deputization system, where certain respected members of the community would become "krunker police", and then you could call them from a lobby. They would then invisibly spectate, and record and ban cheaters. The system worked really well, actually. Cheaters were banned quickly, and the requirement collection of video evidence held those involved accountable.
But krunker players had another interesting way of handling cheaters. You see, krunker has really bad netcode, bad enough that you would have to lead hitscan weapons a variable amount depending on how much ping you had. Krunker was also a movement shooter, where you could slidehop and go really, really fasy. The combination meant that you could dodge the shots of cheaters. As I got better, I just stopped calling krunker police, and started beating them. One of my fondest memories was this one lobby full of good players, and when a cheater joined we stomped them below all of us on the ranking, taunting them all the way down. At the end, they tried to sell their cheats and we all laughed. "Why would I buy these cheats? I'm better than them". Eventually they ragequit. Good times.
But nooooo, nowadays modern game publishers need control over every part of the game. They demand control over the servers, refusing to let anybody host their own communities. They demand absolute control over the community, but refuse to actually moderate it and handle toxicity. And now, they're demanding control over the clients, forcing you to install rootkits on your computers so they can control those too.