Running only on PDP-10s was enough to make ITS useless to maybe 90% of the people who used Unix at the time of that story, regardless of whether or not it was, by any objective standard, better software. Being extremely expensive is enough to make SolidWorks useless to maybe 90% of the people who use FreeCAD.

I mean, SolidWorks is fine for hobbyists, who don't need to worry about getting reported to the BSA by a disgruntled employee, or for organizations that have very large budgets. But a lot of people using FreeCAD aren't hobbyists and don't have very large budgets.