This post is going to get a little GNU plus Linux.
If a distribution goes out of the way to get endorsed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) then they are saying to the community that their goals align with the FSF.
Purism‘s main deal is that they are self proclaimed super privacy oriented free and open source hardware and software with as few gotchas as possible. The Purism phone is the ultimate hardware expression of the ideals of Purism. Purism makes a big deal to seek FSF endorsement for their products and software.
Having FSF endorsement isn’t about being mostly free software. It is a commitment to a hard line philosophy purposely applied to software distribution and distributors believing in and strictly applying that philosophy to their software.
Purism essentially took the Debian Stable main repository, forked to PureOS, brought PureOS to meet the stringent requirements of the FSF, and got the FSF approval. After getting the FSF approval for PureOS they marked their libre packages as obsolete, rebased their distribution on Debian Stable and Testing (Amber and Byzantium), purposefully populated the main repository with software that they know is deemed problematic or unacceptable by the FSF, and ship that product as PureOS. Purism makes no distinction between the software products.
Purism essentially baited and switched the FLOSS community and the FSF.
The methodology that the FSF has in place to report free software violations is thus: contact the project and bring it to their attention and the project will remove the offending code. In practice Purism is aware of the offending code, up to the top man, and deciding that it is not an issue and closing the bug report.
Other FSF endorsed distributions, according to posts on their mailing lists, are aware of and disapprove what purism is doing.
When I get home today I will edit this post and cite my sources. Until then this is what I have to say.
Edit:
Cavalier attitude towards problematic software.
(Note: Just a little history for you. One of the main reasons Debian isn’t a FSF endorsed distribution is because they host repositories for non-free and problematic software)
Head of Purism aware of chromium and offering two separate versions for convenience.
Long comprehensive bug report re:qtwebengine on Parabola GNU/Linux bug tracker.
Bonus Stallman on chromium and qtwebengine, which is also shipped by purism.
The main mailing list for concerning GNU/Linux freeing efforts.