Red Hat: Security Makes Paying for Open Source Software Worth It

I can get a complete distribution either via online download or from a vendor like OSDisc.com and get security patches from the distribution's web site. What exactly is RHEL's subscription fee going to be doing for people that don't need a lot of hand-holding other than emptying their wallets? The paid support model has been around for a long time. Is Red Hat worried that there's enough Linux knowledge out there in userland that they may no longer need to make phone calls for Linux support in the same way that, say, an Oracle user might need to call when there's a database glitch? (And those poor folks cannot even get patches without paying for the expensive phone support privileges.) Don't get me wrong. There are cases where having paid support can be useful (site transitioning from commercial UNIXes to Linux without a really experienced team of admins, for example) but this article just seems to have a air of "FEAR" about it to try and keep their subscribers sufficiently afraid in order to keep them in line.