Not a single device you own gives you full control. If you have a wifi or LTE modem attached to your device, chances are it runs some firmware you cannot overri

Not a single device you own gives you full control. If you have a wifi or LTE modem attached to your device, chances are it runs some firmware you cannot override for legal reasons as you would be at risk of breaking some laws by doing so. It feels like folks draw the line based on what runs on the primary CPU (in particular the kernel), but this is strangely arbitrary. There are all sorts of technologies that will slowly make this appear to work while simply shrinking what you are capable of doing from the kernel you run (eg trustzone, hypervisors you don't control, etc). From the perspective of hardware makers this is just more firmware which everyone is already seemingly okay with. There are too many (non drm even) forces in the industry pushing us in this direction as it solves seemingly real problems (anti-cheat in games, ensuring your bank credentials and biometric data cannot be stolen, work accounts cannot be compromised, etc). There is simply too much risk and therefore money to be lost by giving users control over these things.