Agreed. However, the update situation can be handled in a different way. They can provide an update to disable updates, yet request that customers update the firmware prior to receiving support. Of course, that requires a civil response from customers when the request is made.

When it comes to options to configure other features, the situation requires a decision from Kobo: do they want to offer a device that offers a consistent user experience across all devices (similar to iOS), or do they want to offer a device that allows the user to create their own user experience (similar to Android)? Kobo is sending very mixed messages in this respect. For example: there is very little room to configure the user interface, yet they present quite a few options for configuring the typesetting.

Even here Kobo's policy of frequent device updates leaves a lot of room to manoeuvre. I seem to recall that they gather usage information for their devices. This gives them to option to introduce a feature and see how well it is received by users. If it is well received by users, they can pursue the option further. If it isn't well received by users, they can leave it as is and pursue other directions for development. (Removing the feature may be dangerous, but it may be justifiable in some cases if usage statistics back it.)

As an example of this: they may try implementing a full screen reader mode. It would be a simple checkbox in the options menu. If most customers ignore it, they can just leave the feature alone. If a lot of customers use it, they may want to pursue other avenues for increasing the text density on the screen (e.g. removing whitespace between paragraphs, clearing up the whole widow/orphan bit). We are living in an era where this is possible. They are probably already doing this to a degree. Why not pursue this path to the fullest.

Definitely. I doubt that many people get this passionate about 3 lines of text on a page!