Except then things like warranties get tied to whether you've customized the software on the device. And never mind the herd of people scared into not taking control of their device ("jailbreaking") by nebulous threats of virii or future manufacturer retribution.

The solution then is to ban oppressive warranty terms. Only abusive/negligent care should void warranties like that.

That's more or less already the case:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_...