[ctde]

there is another possible, more charitable explanation for the wait period for device unlocking: as a cooldown period to help people avoid being scammed into unlocking their phones

[morsch]

Was that a common scam before the cooldown?

[rfoo]

I don't think so. OTOH what GP described (reseller earn money by batch unlocking phone and pre-installing not uninstall-able apps/malwares before selling to consumers) is very common some time ago.

China is wild.