[_xy8h]

Yep. This seems to be the point the "FUD! FUD!" criers are ignoring.

Apple has a long, continuous history of locking down hardware. Never having a bootloader unlockable iDevice, unibody, glue, soldered on components that are traditionally user replaceable, soldering in displays and backs when people try to repair batteries, serializing the components so you can't even swap official parts.

Apple has never gone in the reverse direction to make components more easily user serviceable. It's always been in the more restrictive direction. More proprietary with every iteration. Now it's the CPU. Bootloader locking on an M1 Macbook is the next logical step.

[floatboth]

If that is the next logical step why would they go out of their way to design a whole mechanism for running custom kernels?

They could've just released a locked down Macbook in the first place if that was the goal.