IMHO the only problem with HEVC is that payments got too high because of HEVC Advance and then Technicolor or which company it was that went rogue as the third party. The mistake was not having/enforcing binding agreements that would guarantee sane royalties/terms of use.
Otherwise, I don't see a problem with codec not being completely beer-free if it means better technology/compression (and indirectly, incentive for further development). H.264 showed it works well, although some people think it is some catastrophe or something.
