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Obviously depends where you are.

DMCA legislates against circumvention of copyright protection mechanisms.

So if I make a modification to add “competing app stores, free and open source apps/games, cool hardware features,” how does this violate DMCA?

If you have to break DRM features to add your app store then you are in violation of the DMCA technically. But there is no reason you should care if you are outside of the US

Circumvention of technical measures is part of law in many countries. See this example from the UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/technological-pro...

> Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) (also known as copy protection measures or DRM) are often used to protect copyright works, for example, through encryption on DVDs. TPMs can have a important role in enabling copyright owners (rightsholders) to offer content to consumers in different ways, as well as protecting against unlawful copying (piracy). UK law protects the right of copyright owners to use TPMs to protect their works, and circumvention of such technology is illegal.

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