So did I miss anything here, or is this a story of how law enforcement took over an entire fleet of devices, put a rootkit on all of them, and the only reason we know about it is that the company seems to have had a solid reason (wouldn't call it backbone in this specific case) to publish the whole thing?

It reads to me like, had Encrophone not opted to inform all their customers, this would have simply gone on?

I have a hard time condemning the specific case here, but if you substitute any other phone manufacturer here, this becomes quite obviously scary.