There are much less expensive ways of suing someone than just flying there and staying until the lawsuit is done. They're still not cheap, but that's a pretty absurd way of doing it.
Forced arbitration is also complete bullshit. The fact that corporations are starting to realize it's almost as bad for them as it is for us doesn't make it any less bullshit.
Hey, if you don't think distributions are doing anything, you can always use Linux From Scratch.
Seriously though, most of the work done by good distros is specifically so you don't notice things. They make a bajillion independent open source projects work together nicely. That's something I'm glad I don't have to do myself.