True for Windows as well. Ever upgraded to a new version before the first SP? Linux just gets upgrades a lot faster than Windows (and I mean the conservative distros like Debian. Bleeding-edge distros are on a completely other level).
Microsoft have been known to ship a product with thousands of known bugs on its release date. In the networking space (Windows NT), there were Technet CDs that were released to fix all manner of known bugs just so the corporates wouldn't have to wait for a Service Pack
Perhaps a better statement would be, if a for profit service is free, you are the product. Obviously it's possible for someone to make free stuff if they want to, but if someone is making money from you using something, but you aren't paying them, then they're making that money by selling someone else access to you.