I agree, but most end-users do not do this, unfortunately. I was quite happy when Microsoft changed this in Vista and 7, creating a limited user account upon installation. Although they could have done a tad better with the UAC prompts which are criticized all around the net. But in reality, it was only being criticized as people were not used to it.

Truthfully, that is mainly what I hear it being used for in the Android community. There are more press releases of negativity towards it, than positive feedback of it. I know it's sad that cell phone carriers disable Tethering, but it is part of that legal contract you sign with the data plan. There are other features which Android has, but have been disabled by manufacturers or cell phone carriers. What they disable is more than likely in your legally bound contract you signed. Circumventing this, is non-legitimate use of the device, and is illegal by the bounding contract signed by you and the cell phone carrier. Leaving this feature unlocked, and say the customer accidentally clicks on tethering. The carrier finds out somehow, and brings the customer to court by breach of contract. This would result in too many court cases, so disabling the feature is easiest to keep the customer abiding the signed contract.

I admit, it's a great to have when discovering the phone internals and how everything works. Or perhaps developing a custom firmware, in which the main developers have been slow. There are still many phones out there using stone age Android 1.5. My phone was one of them. Rooting my device gave me the ability to upgrade to a more recent Android release, something which my phone manufacturer was not willing to do. You do need root access to flash a new recovery image on a device to enable flashing of the Android system via fastboot. Although, technically flashing a ROM not provided by the manufacturer is deemed non-legitimate by the manufacturer. Also, in the agreement that comes with most cell phones(not including the eDGe, I think...), it states that modifying any system files can void your warranty. Editing files under specific locked android directories, are not put back after one does a factory reset, the changes persist. To the cell phone manufacturer editing these locked down directories is non-legitimate use.

An interesting idea, say in the future household appliances begin running networked software, they can be controlled and monitored anywhere in the household. This is most definitely going to happen, as being seen with the "Windows house" Bill Gates displayed a few years back. Now, say your microwave runs Android. The manufacturer says not to modify any of the system files and leave the Android firmware as it. A user ends up rooting their microwave and changing some system files around to hopefully optimize it. Little did the user know, he/she edited a crucial setting for power output. The next time, they or a family member go and use the microwave, it ends up causing a power surge and you can only guess what happens next.

I certainly hope that these types of devices will never be-able to run such software and just run via PIC chips. I could just see the chaos of a rooted Android microwave in our world. Husband hates wife, husbands roots and hacks microwave, husband goes out for the evening. Husband calls home to wife, "Can you put such such in the microwave? I'll be home soon." Wife turns on microwave and gets baked.

There is always a reason the manufacturer does not want the end-user tinkering with their firmware, and that's why most of them deem modifying it, non-legitimate. If you want to root your phone or eDGe, by all means. However, if anything should go wrong, just don't cry to the manufacturer.