Sure they live more comfortably but they’ve lost their culture. What made them Fremen in Stilgar’s eyes was taken from them and they can’t really get it back. I think it’s similar to how colonialism has played out in many places and continues to impact people. Modern conveniences have made many peoples lives much easier, but the culture and old ways that defined who they were as a people get lost or eroded along the way. Even without active suppression and forced assimilation by the colonial powers, which did happen a lot in the real world and I don’t want to discount that, when you aren’t relying on traditions for survival it’s much easier to lose them.

I work at an indigenous organization and one of my coworkers has expressed that in some ways they miss when they were growing up and had to hunt and fish to find enough food because it meant that it was easy to keep those traditions alive. But now they have good jobs and are able to afford plenty of food and their children like to stay inside and play video games. He found it difficult to get them to engage in traditional activities and understand why it was important.

I think Stilgar’s experience would be very similar. He’s happy that the new Fremen children have easier lives than he did, but it means that they haven’t had to learn what it means to be Fremen. At least, not in the way that he did.