It's ridiculous that we live in a world where the manufacturer is in the position to set terms of repairs. Once someone buys a piece of equipment it's theirs and they should be allowed to repair and modify it however they see fit.
What happened, however, is that the equipment manufacturers in modern times streamlined manufacturing such that they created a whole line of equipment that is physically identical but differentiated by software unlocks. The problem is that if you were able to repair the software, you would be able to unlock features. It is access to those systems has been closely guarded to prevent piracy, just as all kinds of software has done for 50+ years. They do have a problem with you using software you didn't pay for.
It sounds more like artificially inflating the price for hardware