Money.

> "How would comex rid Apple's entire development process of error?"

It wouldn't - but finding exploits and security holes isn't a matter of course. There aren't altogether that many people who have the talents for it, much less the ability to package it into a coherent tool that normal joes can actually download and use.

I have a feeling that there are few enough people who fit this description that Apple can effectively buy them all out.

That's why I hedged with "temporarily". If he's the best that's working on jailbreaking now, just taking him off that project would already help. And asking him to work to secure phones would be a great help, too - he could spot potential vulnerabilities before they're shipped.

This won't make the iPhone into a space-shuttle, but it will make jailbreaking harder, perhaps significantly so.

> Plus, if he jailbreaks devices because he believes people should be free to do with their hardware as they please why on earth would he effectively join the dark side?

They'll drive a dump-truck full of money up to his house. Or maybe there's something else he values more than the belief in free hardware.