I don't get all the pseudo-lawyering. The firmware in your toaster is closed source too and you can't modify it either, yet that appliance doesn't get the same

I don't get all the pseudo-lawyering. The firmware in your toaster is closed source too and you can't modify it either, yet that appliance doesn't get the same scrutiny? If you think: phone has CPU, memory and storage, thus it is a computer and I need to have the same "access" as a 1990's PC, then yes, the whole world might as well be burning right now. But if you take it for the appliance that it is, are you really surprised it works the way it does? If you are so worried about 'rights', where do you draw the line? (pun incoming) your modem, CMTS/CPE/ODN are all closed, crypto-sealed and inseparable hardware+software as well, as is the core router your packets flow through, the TCON board in your flat screen monitor and the microcontroller in your USB charger. Get a CPU from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, TI, Nvidia, MediaTek, Rockchip etc., get a sealed boot loader that is cryptographically tied to the chip and the chip manufacturer. Heck, to get that sealed stuff as an ODM you sign so many NDAs it might as well be an appliance in itself. The days that you bought some end-user high-level hardware and had control over the stack are gone. Not because it can't be done differently, but because it's not viable. Even framework is having a hard time (as are Purism and System76) getting any true 'open' system. Not even a libreboot/coreboot system is actually unencumbered if you use any hardware from the last 5 years. People want a whole bunch of things, but the scale simply isn't there to carry the cost. Ironically, all of this stems from lawyering from the corporate side.