Boycotting the specific product (the new Nexus 7) and buying more open alternatives seems like a much better plan (even if that still probably won't achieve much).
Alternatively, purchase the original Nexus 7 that still has the factory images and proprietary binaries posted for Android 4.3 and before. It still runs great (current owner) and the differences between the new one and the previous are not dramatic outside of the screen resolution.
