I recall a motorcycle which people thought was nice and cheap, but had this major problem where the motor was baked into a single block in such a way that you could not repair most things in it.

Are most motorcyclists also mechanics? No. Do most motorcyclists care about the minor details of the inner parts of the motor, or scientific methods used within? No. Most just want a motorcycle that is cheap, function properly, and yet this specific motorcycle was strongly disliked and viewed as a trap. You could not repair it when it broke and you could not recover the investment by reselling it.

So say you are a non-developer and buying a e-reader with a bunch of DRM. The publisher go busts and you want to recover your investment. At that point you do care that you own a brick rather than some general purpose computer, but its to late. You are stuck in the trap.