No, locked bootloader's are the stuff of nightmares. Much rather be able to scratch all memory on the device and reinstall.
Perhaps what I mean is "locked bootloaders at POS". Selling them locked should be illegal, but locking them yourself with your own key should be trivial.
How about splitting the difference like locking the bootloader at point of sale with guaranteed period for updates? After the period has lapsed, allow users to unlock the bootloader to extend with custom software upgrades or, a subscription base to continue with original POS policy.
This weirdly intersects for the Right to Repair movement, or for consumers whom would rather be conservative on new device purchases and software licenses.
Reminds me of the idea I've been thinking about - kind of unrelated - but once a device is officially no longer supported by a company - particularly consoles and online games - they should make the source code available so people can continue from there on their own.
I've thought about that before too. As soon as something is no longer actively supported, it should become open for people to maintain themselves. Unfortunately, there's a lot of companies that would fight that with as much money as it takes, so it would never happen (at least not in the US)
Ideally, companies should be forced to deposit everything needed for manufacturing a product - 3D designs, software toolchains, PCBs, BOMs, service tooling - at the national archives to be held in trust.
Once the manufacturer ceases supporting a product, everything becomes open source.
Fun fact, CalyxOs managed to lock the bootloader on my Pixel 2... Found out after trying to get stock android back on it. Now I am all set with CalyxOs, so I don't care. I do get an error message that my device is loading a different OS. Not sure how I can get rid of that...
