WikipediaEditor Durin wrote:
en.wikipedia is utterly failing at executing the Foundation's mission, and it is THE flagship project.
This is unwarranted hyperbole. If we're utterly failing, why is Wikipedia a top-10 website that's rapidly gaining cachet as the first place to look for general information, why is Britannica in terror of us, and (specifically on the "free" front) why is the Wikipedia database being used by literally hundreds of mirrors?
Also, bear in mind that "free" is only one half of our fundamental goal. The other half is "encyclopedia". Adding fair use content may restrict the "free" half while enhancing the "encyclopedia" half, so it's hardly an obvious net loss.
The same rationales that we use for fair use images can be used by others who wish to use Wikipedia's material in the same context (as an educational encyclopedia), so it's not like the fair use images are completely useless for people wishing to reuse our content. They just have to make the judgement for themselves which licences are compatible with their use and strip out the bits that aren't.