This is very much analogous to the device security problem for smartphones. If you want to grant superuser access to any piece of software other than what was

This is very much analogous to the device security problem for smartphones. If you want to grant superuser access to any piece of software other than what was shipped on the phone, that's a big risk factor in the eyes of the manufacturer. They don't want you bringing down their brand and infecting yourself or others with malware as a result of getting superuser access. Their solution to this problem is to have a fuse that's opened after you, the owner, makes the decision to accept changes to the bootloader signature verification. You accept the liability and risk involved with this change. Unfortunately the difference between this example and yours is that the risk of the root-my-smartphone decision impacting the public is quite a bit lower. For that matter, a better comparison might be the FCC's ruling change regarding routers which don't use any bootloader verification method [1]. Their concern is to the impact on the public spectrum. Though it's pretty interesting that they didn't care about it when it was just the ISM band, they only got involved when it started to threaten FAA doppler radar [2]. Linksys and other vendors seem to comply by partitioning the functionality for the radio from the other router features. [1] https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/7521096518.pdf https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/7521096518.pdf [2] https://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/publications/2677.aspx https://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/publications/2677.aspx