You get to "own your device" after you connect it to the internet once, to make sure it's not pre-provisioned for enterprise use.
Transfer of control isn't happening exactly at sale time but a few hours later isn't a big deal.
Though of course that depends on it staying unlocked.
I wonder if any of the countries that implement a country-wide firewall block this domain. That would disable bootloader unlocking for the entire country.
I'd imagine the demographic that is buying the cell phone and then not intending to use it as a phone is not one that Google is losing a lot of sleep over serving poorly.
Smartphones aren’t only for the developed world.
Never tried a return because I'd have to pay through the nose on shipping.
That's very unfortunate if you'd have to pay a return for a promised feature not working.
If it's a normal gift, then the recipient won't have any roms or bootloaders they need to install. To get those they will need internet, at which point they can unlock the phone.
> or the even more exotic “person in a foreign country”
What's the problem? Are they buying a phone they won't get a plan for, and can't find anywhere with wifi, and they have no home internet? But they still want to unlock the boot loader because... why?
If that ultra-niche scenario is not what you have in mind, then please explain.
At this point it's being angry for the sake of it.
A few years ago I bought a Nokia N900 which was at the time a 10 year old phone. I did this to use it as a daily driver.
Without community support the phone would have been useless. But, more importantly, if the phone required an internet connection to some server in order to let you replace the stock OS then it would have been a brick because Nokia's servers were long gone by then.
That being said, all things considered, the most important argument here is not of the practicality but the principle.
You handed over money for a piece of hardware but you can't make full use of the hardware until you let the phone talk to the manufacturer once. Thats completely insane irrespective of how small of a perceived issue you think it is.