[bdamm]

My bets are that the firmware developers never had a problem because they're JTAG'd, simulated, or running insecure firmware with a built-in back door, and it wasn't until late in the product cycle where the need was even discovered (likely by a QA team.) At that point, this is the best they could come up with.

[seren]

This could also be possible and more charitable for the poor HW guys I have denigrated, but at some point, someone (Product Manager?) has decided to go ahead with that weird pattern, which seems a bit odd.