"Engineers have been circulating an old, famous-among-programmers web comic about how all modern digital infrastructure rests on a project maintained by some random guy in Nebraska. (In their telling, Mr. Freund is the random guy from Nebraska.)"
That's not quite right. Lasse Collin is the random guy in Nebraska. Freund is the guy that noticed the whole thing was about to topple.
Puberty blockers aren't life long. Puberty is. These parents aren't trying to give their kids sex change operations. They're trying to give their kids a chance to make those decisions for themselves.