[tgsovlerkhgsel]

> Does it really hurt so much?

Potentially yes. The manufacturer may attempt to prevent publication through legal threats or action, which can be annoying and expensive even if you ultimately win. The incentive to be annoying goes down significantly once the disclosure cannot be prevented (because it's already public) and the public is watching (i.e. any action against the researcher has a higher likelihood of public backlash).

It also allows the manufacturer, who is likely more experienced and has more resources, to start PR to downplay the attack.

I generally default to responsible/coordinated disclosure, but I also do my research first. If the company has previously shown undesirable behavior (like the stuff I've described), or I've reported to them previously and didn't like the experience, they'll learn about the disclosure from the news.