What tech are we talking about? WoL is definitely appreciated in all devices, although the "RealWoW" thing is very much diminishing returns. Otherwise, everything is just normal programmable chips and DMA-type data movement, both of which are generally desirable.
in fact, i think i'd prefer a computer that leaves all the layer 4+ up to the operating system as at least it has a chance of being audited.
that said, this raises an interesting point. the only way to really be sure is to sniff your own packets... but if everything moves to being encrypted that's going to get a lot harder...
In addition if he could achieve code execution on the card it wouldn't matter whether the card has this functionality as he could implement it himself if needed.
that is exactly the kind of crap that gets exploited.