Even better would be to offer two classes of products: one with an IME-like controller and one without. They could push the non-IME one to consumers and the IME

Even better would be to offer two classes of products: one with an IME-like controller and one without. They could push the non-IME one to consumers and the IME one to server/enterprise customers. Just turning it off is hardly a guarantee that it'll stay off forever. Remove the entire component physically and I'll know it'll never be running in the background.