I hadn't realized planes were sold with software-only features that were only turned on if you paid more. Which is what sounds like happened, right?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, this makes sense as a money-maker, and is how software is (necessarily) sold. When you have to pay extra for certain software features, whether or not they were actually included in the binary you have as a lesser-payer, it could have been, software is intangible and has no extra per-unit cost to include the "mechanism" once developed. This makes sense as a business model for selling software, in that that's how software works.

But yeah, I hadn't realized planes were sold that way. When we're talking about "features" that are pilot dashboard indicators... it really doesn't seem wise. Are there any pilot dashboard indicators that would be sold as add-ons that wouldn't increase safety were they there? I mean, what's a dashboard indicator for if not making it easier for the pilot to fly the plane? If you have to pay extra for some actual physical device, that's one thing, the physical device has to be installed. But when they're just holding back safety features with no extra per-unit cost that could simply be switched on if you paid... does not make me feel great about flying.