There are capabilities that can be misused, but I generally trust the companies with those capabilities to not misuse them. Maybe Lenovo will include a sketchy

There are capabilities that can be misused, but I generally trust the companies with those capabilities to not misuse them. Maybe Lenovo will include a sketchy driver, but I trust Lenovo to not use that driver to drop ransomware on my machine. In the same sense I trust Google with my location and emails. You may trust an AV company that can upload any file on your machine to not grab your tax returns and open a new credit card in your name. Even if Lenovo starts intercepting my private web traffic or placing files on my machine there is only so much damage they can do. They are not about to frame me by dropping plans to overthrow the government in my downloads folder then blackmailing me to design more secure drivers for no pay. There are threats I'm afraid of and a computer manufacturer, no matter how negligent, is not one of them. Is OP avoiding Intel too? Meh.