I'm not saying they're wrong in their expectations, I definitely have an expectation that I won't be spied or eaves dropped on in my own home as well. But that's why I don't put an always on mic that is sending everything it records off to a US company on us servers, running software no-one can see the source code of.
Seriously, it boggled my mind how you an expect the Facebook telescreen or the google/amazon spy mic to respect your privacy when we know the business model of these companies and the potential for abuse. Even assuming they didn't want to spy, they could easily be compelled to by an alphabet agency and you'd never know.
And for what? So you can order more coffee from Amazon without lifting a finger, or so you can pause Spotify without pressing on the remote? Come on...
It leads to a smaller simpler design to simply hook all switches and lights into a CPU and have software control everything. It lets the UX be decided later in the design process, it allows the design to be modified to other usecases more easily, and it simplifies the testing required for each device produced.
Having 'hardware' switches also tends to be significantly harder to design. For example, a hardware mic switch might bounce when switched, and cause voltage transients which damage the ADC. Such things are very hard to predict before the design is produced, and might only affect a small percentage of produced devices meaning it gets missed in testing.
Yes, most modern devices don't have these switches, and yes it's more expensive to put them in, but hopefully it's not completely going away. I like knowing that something is off (software can fail, whether intentionally or unintentionally), and I'm willing to pay a little extra for that.
I hope we haven't completely ignored lessons from Spectre/Meltdown. Trusting the CPU isn't acceptable, so certain things should have a hardware shut-off to ensure malware can't break through (e.g. Purism's laptops have hardware switches for the camera and other components, which is awesome given the Snowdon leaks).
There's a color it glows when it is on since it is battery powered and that actively drains power. That isn't much comfort since that light is also software activated.
I’ll post back here if I find any info to confirm or deny this.