> The idea that ROMs from questionable sources make your device safer sounds very strange to me.

It's about owning your hardware, not safety. A person that's willing to go through the hassle knows the consequences of such actions and how to deal with them.

Do "normal people" need to do that? Absolutely not. Should it be easy to do that? Absolutely not. But for those of us that really want to own our hardware, there should be a way of doing so without relying on exploits.