[stu2010]

Economies of scale mean that it's frequently less expensive to manufacture only the top configuration with the most features, and then turn features off in software. Broadly, I think that price discrimination is good because it allows the cheaper version of things to exist and be sold at a lower profit margin than a company would otherwise be willing to sell for.

For example, the 2022 Ford Maverick XL was not available with cruise control, but it's only locked out in software. All cars have computer controlled throttles now, so cruise control is a software-only feature with no additional hardware.

Some other hardware that's commonly limited by software is CPUs, GPUs, and such. I had a triple core AMD CPU that I unlocked into a quad core, and an ATI GPU that I reflashed into a higher model. This has become less possible as manufacturers start using lasers to destroy parts of their own product instead, so that hackers can't re-enable disabled functionality.

If laws came around to prevent software from being used to limit hardware functionality, that's what we're going to start seeing: more money and effort spent to intentionally remove or destroy things from products. That sucks compared to just switching it off in software.