Your criticism is legitimate, and I am not buying a new Macbook with the M1 for the same reasons. I will however say there is a legitimate, non-crippleware rea

Your criticism is legitimate, and I am not buying a new Macbook with the M1 for the same reasons. I will however say there is a legitimate, non-crippleware reason: Secure Boot (device boot/kernel integrity). Before we had basic constructs like TPMs it was quite trivial to long-term rootkit a box or specifically a network security appliance. Secure Boot with the keys in the hand of the owner of the hardware is a very useful tool to ensure you aren't silently running an owned kernel/etc. But it is like any story: A useful tool immediately becomes a weapon.