I don't think most people realize how incredibly pervasive theft from construction sites is. Residential / commercial - it doesn't matter. There are organized groups who spend a ton of time and energy breaking into tool lockers or into actual buildings under construction. Work equipment is very expensive, often portable, and has great resale value.

Doesn’t seem like a “one time lock that is forever disabled upon purchase“ would work for your use case. You’d need Apple-style Find My / Brick My stuff.

I'm more thinking about the retail end. Any lock which could be used after purchase is a danger to the users freedom. Although a decentralized solution is certainly possible. For example requiring the tool to talk to the users server I cannot imagine it being practical in the context of users today.