Open hardware doesn’t change this at all. Either you have an activation lock like feature or you do not. If your hardware has a path that allows a random pers

Open hardware doesn’t change this at all. Either you have an activation lock like feature or you do not. If your hardware has a path that allows a random person to circumvent it, then by definition it does not have an activation lock. This isn’t an open vs closed hardware question. This “does this feature exist”, and your argument is that it should not. This is spite of the fact that activation lock was a feature introduced specifically in response to high rates of theft, and its introduction immediately reducing that theft. Activation lock is a feature that people want, but again activation lock is either there or it is not. If your “open” hardware includes a mechanism that bypasses an ownership lock then by definition the lock is not a functional if feature. A company can make an open laptop that has an activation system that requires an authentication in or to do a full device reset, or to replace the firmware. But if that lock is in place, it can’t let you flash a new firmware on or reset it, because again that defeats the purpose.