It is a useful ability, and I’m still willing to sacrifice it. I’m afraid that allowing updatable firmware to be part of the hardware will just allow hardware companies to get sloppy, not to mention the freedom we could lose if that firmware is proprietary. If hardware is (by law) immutable, then it’s pretty clear it’d better work from day one. No last minute patch, it has to work, or it won’t sell.

This will drive up the costs, as well as the selling price, but if it means hardware will work out of the box more often than it does now I’m willing to pay that cost.