It's the kind of stuff the boring, slow-moving, TCG group were talking about long ago for improved DRM and security. Then they advertised their backdoors publicly as vPro while people here argued why Intel rand was trustworthy (lol). They sold that as management benefit for enterprises. Eventually those gradual changes got to the current point.

Although I recommend switching off x86, I don't buy the claim that we cant do another x86 without backdoors. For one, Intel or AMD might do a "semi-custom" design without one for a price. Second, Centaur has long been the 3rd player in x86 for low power stuff sold by VIA. They'd probably do a high-performance design if incentivized. Third, many x86 players showed up over time that simply failed in market or were acquired. Nothing stopping another unless there's a legal restriction Im unaware of.