That's a lot of text that doesn't address my core question of: why can't Proton just not use the slop box?

Literally nobody is making them . Their CEO could toss their silly manifesto. There's no guaranteed payout from this, and if anything it's hurting their brand. "Because capitalism" doesn't mean anything either, that's just a completely dead-end cliche. Slavery was part of capitalism too. Surely you'd not argue in favor of using it because it was inevitable.

You can have an opinion all day about inevitability, but I hope it's not just a baseless one.