The “just choose to avoid” (because they are stupid and evil?) is very reductive.
I work at an open source company and we always avoided using APGL for many complex legal reasons - most of our user base would use something else if we were to switch license to APGL.
May they all heard too much FUD or are plain stupid but imo the reason is more complex
It has always seemed weird that companies are happy to use proprietary software but avoid AGPL software like plague. AGPL being a free software license, usage is not restricted. There's nothing forbidden. If you only intend to use the software, then the situation is trivial. You have unrestricted right to use it. There's absolutely no complexity there. Proprietary software has strictly more restrictions on usage and is more legally complex.
> because they are stupid and evil
Yes, that was the intended meaning (evil, not stupid - on the contrary, I think that's very clever). With this I'm not qualifying small companies that bought into the FUD, but big corps that don't like that they cannot just take AGPL code and make others scared of the AGPL for no good reasons.
I work at an open source company and we always avoided using APGL for many complex legal reasons - most of our user base would use something else if we were to switch license to APGL.
May they all heard too much FUD or are plain stupid but imo the reason is more complex