[mindslight]

Well, that's a completely different problem. If you travel frequently and your gear gets stolen for a few days at every border crossing? At the very least, I'd look into a laptop that was easily field-strippable, and figure out how to verify non-volatile storage with an external device, at least on return. And never fully trust the machine again either. Note that this problem is what TPMs purport to solve, but that doesn't help you against a major government which will demand a backdoor from the manufacturer.

My laptop was never touched by customs - had it been, my plan was to never trust the machine again.

Most people are in my situation - never actually getting hassled but wanting to protect themselves now that the gloves are coming off. In the future we all may have to deal with device quarantines of a few days at every crossing (what a boon to local sellers!) but that's not now.