I'm guessing you never supported an environment where laptops had hardware switches for the WiFi card. I can't even begin to quantify the amount of support time

I'm guessing you never supported an environment where laptops had hardware switches for the WiFi card. I can't even begin to quantify the amount of support time that wastes. If a users asks for something to happen (like a Skype call) it should just happen. To end-users, having multiple points at which the functionality they want can be switched off is just frustrating, and it costs manufacturers call center time and customer satisfaction. The paranoid can tape over cameras and cut mic cables if they feel it's really necessary. You really might want to consider whether "slavery" is the appropriate word for switches implemented in software.