Since the enforcement of support contracts for feature upgrades on HPE servers there has been a lot of misinformation.
Before you freak out, just go look and see if the product you want is behind the paywall, and remember that any hotfixes or security bug patches are free. It is a good habit in general to make sure you can update the firmware of any device before you buy. I linked the download pages for the two switches you were considering. Neither require contracts of any sort.
HPE 2810
Aruba 2530
Support packs are released several times a year as a synced firmware recipe... They are splitting the support packs into legacy and current soon with g6 being dropped from the next mainline pack. (they are growing too big to have firmware for every server made, bios, controllers, ilo, nics drives, every device supported)
To gain access to those packs you have to have "entitlement" or a current server under warranty or a support subscription. Otherwise you go to the page of the server you own and download the hotfixes for it and drivers etc. You just won't have feature upgrades if you are out of warranty. You will still have full drivers access and many non bios firmwares.
If you just have to have SPP I am sure you can find one, or you can upgrade your freenas box to a ML10v2 gen8 for $170 when they go on sale and have access.
Yes it is annoying, cisco started this horrible trend, and technically dell requires the same, they just don't enforce it yet. That said, there is definitely no lack of support. HP inc simply handles laptops, workstations and printers. HPE handles the rest.