Don't forget Tesla did this with some of their earlier Model S's. Preventing use of the full battery capacity on cheaper versions. It's obviously standard pract

Don't forget Tesla did this with some of their earlier Model S's. Preventing use of the full battery capacity on cheaper versions. It's obviously standard practice in all commercial software too. The whole idea of selling software depends on restricting how people use it - at the very least - not allowing them to copy it and give it away. The marginal cost of producing software is zero so you can't make money only charging for that. Probably the marginal cost of producing a welder is lower than they total cost too, so they need to recover it somehow. Of course when you buy a Miller welder, you're paying for the brand name so you're not too concerned about price. Get any cheap Chinese one instead and you'll get the features are a "fair" price but without feeling so good about yourself.