Manufactures like to do it in firmware because then they can use the same hardware worldwide. If they find sales are higher than forecast in Europe say, and low

Manufactures like to do it in firmware because then they can use the same hardware worldwide. If they find sales are higher than forecast in Europe say, and lower than forecast in the US they can just flash more units at the factory with EU firmware and less with US firmware. A good middle ground would be to have two blobs, one for low level radio control and one for everything else. The low level radio blob can be locked down so that only blobs signed by the manufacturer can be loaded. The everything else blob can be easily replaceable.