This has bothered me for years! I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who didn't already understand the concept of "free software" for whom this expression was actually helpful. (Maybe RMS lives in a world where there's a lot of free beer.)

A better way of explaining this is surely that the "free" in free software is about freedom rather than about its being zero cost.

Peanuts already means something with a value so close to free that it’s not worth worrying about. “That’s just peanuts compared to space.”

Might be true of stickers too. To a parent, “free as stickers” probably means something that’s likely to go right in the trash bin without being used.

Naming is tough.