Hardware manufacturers actually do pay money to try and prevent some attacks(the main problem of course is that preventing side-channel attacks has a performanc

Hardware manufacturers actually do pay money to try and prevent some attacks(the main problem of course is that preventing side-channel attacks has a performance cost) The article even notes hardware manufacturers worry about firmware attacks. Admittedly, a lot don't, and the race to the bottom on commodity hardware only encourages cutting corners on something customers don't pay more for. But just because flaws in security are inevitable, that doesn't mean they aren't worth considering. It's some protection - it may be too expensive to break for all firmware. The NSA is hardly the only organization with an interest in doing so. Even if the NSA can break verification in it for no cost, it's better than NSA + criminals being able to.