You're missing the point, though. A John Deere tractor is much better than what they're making and I'm sure they would agree with that assessment. Their machines are cheaper and more importantly much simpler so that they can be built or have major repairs done on site with very simple metalworking tools.
That's not much of a selling point in the US but in a developing nation, it's a game changer. We could give a bunch of poor farmers John Deer tractors and when they break down, those farmers can't afford replacement parts and can't make parts. This has been the bane of most of the humanitarian efforts of the past. We airdrop in and give the locals a bunch of tech that makes sense for the US, pat them on the back and jet back out. Then we get all surprised when all that shit stops working 2 years later. OTOH, if those farmers have built up the metalworking infrastructure that's part of the package, they can keep these machines running for much longer.
Of course there's certain parts like the ICE and hydraulic pumps that won't be buildable for the foreseeable future this way but they're fairly inexpensive and widely available.
In the US, we benefit from a gigantic industrial infrastructure full of institutional knowledge. That's why a John Deere makes sense here. Unfortunately, the vast majority of that knowledge is proprietary and locked up if you don't have enough money. The group's aim is to try and at least come up with a skeleton of open source infrastructure/institutional knowledge that anyone can access, regardless of wealth.
Obviously they've got a tremendous way to go before they can even say they're scratching the bottom of that goal but it's a laudable one.