I haven't edited a config file in Linux (specifically Ubuntu) in a few years, just used the ever improving GUI tools.
Free software is a political platform; as someone who until recently developed software for a living, it matters deeply to me who controls my tools and environment. See e.g. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
It's worth noticing that free software is possible because software can be copied and modified at effectively no cost: scarcity is a non-issue, unless enforced for profit. Programmers writing free software are therefore paid only for their labor, and in so far as capital is accumulated it is "owned" by everyone.