[…] which also sparks enthusiast fears of not being able to own your own hardware or software, but rather rent an agent and a computer in the cloud.

This is ultimately the goal. They know they’ll never get most folks, but could definitely convince a good amount of them to just rent computer usage through some cheap device. These guys write all of the tech rules and regulations now. Imagine how stoked they’d be if we were all on thin clients. They continue to hoard RAM, they can spy on us, and turn around to sell our data. Walled garden.